@Aerielacoustics, no I haven’t heard the Berkeley dacs. My references for digital sound includes several audio shows and having been a member of central Florida’s Suncoast Audio Society and having heard quite a few very fine member systems. (Yes I know Mike at @ Suncoast, he’s a great guy.) I had conversed with the sales manager @ Luxman USA when I was debating which model to buy and he told me (around Christmas time) that the new models should be available around now. I imagine the worldwide virus pandemic has put those plans in slower motion. I did get to hear the new $15k Luxman SACD player at the Florida Audio Expo in an all Luxman and Magico system and I thought it was the best sound of the show. Couldn’t really compare what I thought of the new player to the D-08u of course, different room, system, etc. Shannere makes a great comparison point, the Luxman signature is like the difference between a Class A amp vs typical class AB. Prior to buying the Luxman d-05 10 years ago, I had been using a Marantz SA-11s1. After just two years it developed a transport problem that Marantz couldn’t fix and I had to junk it. At that point, after having had four different brands of CD or SACD players (Denon, Cambridge, Musical Fidelity) develop drive problems, I did as much research as I could on cd transport reliability and decided Luxman or Esoteric were my best bets because they were the only ones in my price range that were making their own transports. So, for the last 10 years, Luxman has served me well. As you can tell from my system description, I’m not much of a gear churner and most things I buy tend to stay with me a while.
