King Rex did in fact ship a U-Power and a UD384 and now I need to find some time to slot it in. I really like that battery pack -- however that review ends up, that widget might just have to stick around to drive the power leg of my Acoustic Revive USB-SP cable.

Burson Audio also sent me a DA-160. Nice DAC! It got a bit rattled in the shipment, however, so that one went back. Still working on out what and when the replacement will be.

In the meantime, the Berkeley Pair (Alpha Series 2 and the Alpha USB) are thoroughly on their way to being broken in. The long story short? Together, they are creating the best digital audio sound I've heard in the house.

Notice the caveat? Well, something else has arrived that has made my digital front end a bit ... ah ... obsolete.

The "Mothership" has landed!

My pride and joy (been saving up for this one for years) is a TW Acustic Raven AC-3. A TW Acustic Raven 10.5 tonearm carries an Ortofon Windfeld cartridge and everything feeds into a Thoress/Raven phono stage (the only tubes currently in my system).

It's the single most impressive thing in my rig. By a lot.

At this point, I'm not sure where to go. I'm thinking that this system is probably done at this point.

Which brings me to "System 2".

What-what? Yes, I'm already working on another system. This one is going to go in a different direction. Next on the agenda? High-sensitivity speakers w/ low-powered amps. Why the hell not, right?

So, where to go? Well, my budget in this direction is a little challenged (see the above comment about the Mothership). So, I'm going to go a bit cheap just to see where this takes me. Stay tune on this one.

But in the meantime, it's a shootout. Got some good Black Friday discounts at HD Tracks, Acoustic Sounds and Elusive Disc -- so, both front ends are going to get some exercise! Now, I just need to find more excuses to work from home ....