Good dac to reproduce soprano vocals?

I was going to reply with something along the lines of Steve.

But once jitter is taken care of the character of the DAC also comes into it. The DAC I have heard recently that makes vocals sound really good is the new Chord QuteHD. Another DAC with a really beautiful liquid and fluid midrange that really works well with vocals is the Tranquility SE DAC - but its USB only.

With the Tranquility you wont need to worry about it but as Steve said with any other DAC make sure its fed with a low jitter source.

Thanks
Bill

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. To be more specific about my request, I am currently using a "pretty good" dac (the Calyx 24/192) which does a beautiful job with female vocals in general. Karrin Allyson's jazz album "Round Midnight" (a 48k/24bit download) sounds fabulous. What I'm referring to is the soprano vocalist who can produce an immediate crescendo of immense power and beauty. I have only heard this done with any grace by the Berkeley Audio Alpha, and it was lacking the warmth of the real thing. In my system, those powerful crescendos on a redbook cd are typically hard and glassy.

In most cases, I'm thinking that 44.1k/16 bit recordings just aren't capable of capturing this accurately without some "reinterpretation or interpolation" by a dac. If you want to know what I'm talking about take a listen to Kiri Te Kanawa's cds from the 80s and 90s. And the latest from Susan Graham (a mezzo) isn't a whole lot better. Are these performances just going to be lost in the wake of the turn to digital recording?

I'm not sure CD format is a barrier to good female vocals.

I can vouch that mhdt Constantine or Paradisea tube dac possibly with a minor tube upgrade like NOS TUng Sol can do them well if teh system overall is up to the task.

Try a well built DAC based on the venerable TDA1541 chip, peferably Double Crown. The ones I've heard preserves the timbre of female vocals like no other modern DACs, closest to a vinyl rig. The modern DACs may be better at soundstaging and imaging and frequency extension, but no modern DAC I've heard can beat a NOS ladder DAC when it comes to vocals and acoustic instruments sounding like the real thing.

Hfl,
Was the Berkeley Audio Alpha the Alpha2? If not perhaps you could give that one a listen as it has been refined a bit over the original.