Article: Review | Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Reference Series 3

[barrows]

Hey @The Computer Audiophile, nice review, thanks.  I wonder about the logic which allows pFlash to suggest that putting in a USB interface would add too much noise when they have an AD SHARC DSP chip in there for running their oversampling/filtering algos???  Seems a bit contradictory to me as the SHARC chip is more powerful (read noisy) than an XMOS...

I know you have a good relationship with Pflash and Michael Ritter, any chance of an interview with them, perhaps fielding questions from members ala your interview with the Purifi folks?  Could be an interesting discussion considering their experience level with digital products, both ADC and DAC.

 

As for DSD, well, I only play DSD these days.  To me, pretty much everything sounds better converted to DSD.  I do not think is because the format itself is better, but because DSD x4 can be converted by a much simpler process than PCM.  If you only compare DSD to PCM using a standard SDM DAC, you are often missing the point though, try something discrete or with an AKM chip which allows for AKM's "direct" DSD conversion mode.