DHale

Gary and Ear, Thanks for your replies. I ended up going the Vega route. I couldn't arrange to demo the two options head to head. Happy with the results so far. As fast as this technology evolves, if I keep the Vega as long as I had the Alpha, I will be happy... Now I just need to compare the Vega to a googlephonic with moonrock needle... Then I'll know.

I have a Berkeley Alpha DAC 1st Generation (not upgradable to mkII). I have been running Pure Music through an old Mac G5 with a Lynx sound card AES into the Berkeley Alpha DAC. Time and software upgrades have conspired to pretty much force me out of the G5. I bought a mac mini recently so no more AES out. My thought process was to get a Berkeley Alpha USB and problem solved. Then I started reading pretty good things about the Auralic Vega. My questions is whether to keep a 1st generation Alpha DAC and add the Alpha USB or just get an Auralic Vega. Any thoughts? Happy to provide any additional information required. Thanks.