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Berkeley dac2/Alpha USB vs ps audio perfect wave ?


I want to try going without a preamp but want to have very good quality dac sound to make it a fair right (I will demo vs the existing preamp before I pull it out ). I've kinda narrowed this down to these two set ups based on reviews , features, and ease of resale if I change my mind. Perfect wave is about half the total cost if you pick it up on Audiogon. Both Computeraudiohile and absolute sound raved about Berkeley, and both gave very good reviews to the perfect wave 2 but without comparing it directly to Berkeley .

(I already have the Berkeley USB but I know I could resell easily so im not locked into that choice ).
audiojbva

Showing 4 responses by edorr

edorr
714 posts
 
This should be no contest with the MSB costing twice as much as the BADA and PWD MKII. I am also on the list to receive the MSB for a shootout against my EMM Labs DAC2X. The EMM Labs replaced my PWD MKII (and bested it by a substantial margin).
edorr
714 posts
 
Can't beat the PWD MKII for the price. I sold mine with bridge for $2400.
The EMM Labs is a big notch up though. Hard to pin it down. Somehow
there appears to be more going on with the music, and most definitely there
is a better sense of the acoustic space, more depth, more air, better decay
of notes, more fluid. Timbre of instruments is not that much different
though.
edorr
714 posts
 
True. The only issues you may encounter are when using the bridge, but this is a feature the Berkeley does not have in the first place, so this should not be a disqualfier of the PWD MKII. If you stick with USB, you should never have any issues.
edorr
714 posts
 
Interesting. Never heard of USB related problems with the PWD MKII. Bad luck. Plenty issues with the bridge though.
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