Berkeley ref dac 3


Spoke with berkeley dealer today. Ref 3 dac is coming out in february.  Version 2 is discontinued. Anyone know what the new improvements are? Anyone on the waitlist?
bangdown
Lalitk is not wrong.  The last version of the Berkley ref 2 finally sounded right to my ears. The others were arguably enormously detailed but you just didn’t care. They were too cerebral with bland tonal colors & the music felt sat on. The last version I heard had some genuine dynamics & some infectious enthusiasm for the music. That brought all its virtues into focus at last. They finally figured that out. I heard a Chord Dave not side by side or with its extraordinary upsampler that hugely increases its performance) that was perhaps even more musical & likely close enough to being as detailed. The better MSB stuff as well. The progress that Berkeley has made recently has me hopeful that the 3 is meaningfully better then even its prior best. In October I’ll hear it at our annual audio show in Toronto at the latest & I expect to be impressed.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for Ver3. The previous two versions failed to impress me....very analytical sounding DAC’s, IMO.