The 2 contenders for a dac upgrade are the Weiss 501MKII and the Berkely Dac Alpha Series 3. The are both priced within $1000.00 of each other with the Weiss being more expensive. My thoughts are that the Weiss 501MK II has a built in headphone amplifier, a preamplifier and room correction capabilities. I have the Weiss 204 which has no bells and whistles and only gives me the sound. Yes I did a $1000.00 Modwright Linear Power Supply. To my way of thinking this makes the Berkely Alpha Series 3 Dac a better value if every thing else is equal. A portion of the asking price for the Weiss must include the extras that Weiss offers. I do not think I can audition both at the same time doing an A-B comparison. At this price range would like to get this right. I would buy the Berkely without the USB box which costs an additional $2500.00, and would use it through SPDIF or AES/EBU, balanced. Am I thinking about this in a reasonable manner? Thank you.
Asynchronous USB vs. SPDIF with regard to DAC upgrade
My system consists of the following:
- Weiss 204 DAC with Modwright Linear Power Supply
- Lumin U2 Mini streamer with LHY Linear Power Supply
- Conrad Johnson Et-7 linestage
- Bryston 4B3 cubed power amplifier
- JBL 4349 horn loaded loudspeaker (sounds great at moderate levels)
Seeking a dac upgrade with a budget of $14,000.00. (new only)
At first I was only looking for Coax via SPDIF, but then an audiogon member educated me to the fact that with a USB Audio connection the internal clock is controlled by the Dac and not the streamer as streamers usually will not have the same clock quality as a high end Dac. I should mention do not use my computer in my system. The two candidates are the Weiss DAC 501 MKII and the Berkely Audio Alpha Series 3. I was advised that the Berkely does not come with a USB port and this is an add on. I believe Berkely did not want to put the USB intterface in the Dac itself to avoid USB noise that comes from a computer. My reading and research tells me a asynchronous USB port will sound better, less jitter than a coax SPDIF. Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestion? Thank you.
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I will second @audphile1 advice to consider a DAC that supports Ethernet and serves as an endpoint. I recently picked up a Bricasti M3 to pair with my Innuos Zenith streamer using USB. On a whim I bought an Antipodes CX server at a good price and set it up as a Roon server and ran a direct Ethernet cable to the M3. There was no going back. I did all sorts of comparisons with the Zenith and USB, even tossing in a DDC so I could compare with SPDIF via AES. Now my thoughts are on upgrading the Bricasti, or trying the Meitner or Tambaqui, but I don’t think I will be going back to USB or SPDIF. It looks like the Weiss 501 supports this, I would give it a try, and don’t overlook a server upgrade as well. |
There are dealers that would allow a home audition if you’re buying new. |
@kjl1065 here’s another valuable option in your price range https://tmraudio.com/fresh-arrivals/dcs-bartok-apex-dac-d-a-converter-1-13/ |
- 28 posts total