Berkeley Audio Designs Alpha DAC Series 2 Arrives at Pearl Audio Video!
Following on the heels of the successful Alpha DAC Series 1, Berkeley Audio Design has announced a new Series 2 Alpha DAC.
The Alpha DAC Series 2 builds on the strengths of the previous Series 1 using new clocking and isolation technology resulting from research done while engineering the new Berkeley USB interface. How good was the Alpha DAC Series 1 ? Check out the Berkeley Alpha DAC Series 1 and Berkeley Alpha USB reviews by Chris Connacker in Computer Audiophile.
The appearance, controls and operating functionality of the Alpha series 2 is identical to the Alpha DAC 1 except for the addition of a Series 2 label on the rear panel.
From a performance perspective, according to Michael Ritter of Berkeley Audio Design, the new Alpha DAC Series 2 has greater imaging precision, timbral purity, and resolution as compared to the Series 1.
We at Pearl Audio first discovered the Alpha DAC when we heard the amazing sound at the Magico* room at CES one year.
They were playing some of the most beautiful Reference Recordings classical recordings I’ve ever heard. They were 24/188khz digital files being played off of a custom built computer (that had no cd drawer I noticed!) into a DAC I had never seen before. I talked to Alon Magico-Man Wolf and he said it was a Pacific Microsonics DAC. It was GOOOOD Digital! Wow! So we started to check these guys out and found that Pacific Microsonics had reformed into a new company called Berkeley Audio Design which sells the new and improved Berkeley Alpha DAC. Pacific Microsonics invented the digital format HDCD, so the name Berkeley Audio Design serves to differentiate them. They’re BAD.
Two years, and several impossibly positive ‘best of’ reviews later, we finally brought in the mighty Alpha. Much to our delight, our Alpha is one of the first production run of the new Series 2 Alphas!
We invite you to come in an hear this incredible digital vunderkind with our big rig Magnepan 3.7 system.
* Yes, we do in-fact realize how completely and utterly stupid we are in extolling the sonic virtues of a speaker line we do not purvey. Tell our competitors we said “Hi”.