LongBchSteve

I am using an Aries>Regen too. Did you ultimately find the microRendu ultimately much better than the sound of the Aries combo. Or is it still at least as good?

I did the same thing. I was amazed. I could swear my system went from Excellent to Extraordinary. Every parameter was bumped up, especially those I think are involved in "time/timing". Focus, imaging, air, instruments hanging in space, transparency, detail. For the price it was incredible in my system. I ordered a couple more for auto, desktop, etc. I also ordered the Regen as it too appears to be a wonder. Can't wait to see what that does in conjunction with the Jitterbugs.

2.6 works fine for me on my dcs Vivaldi. Firmware notes not up yet. Anyone know what 2.6 "fixed"?

Just got my Aries. Now works great with my system. Seemed to have worked all the kinks out. I'm using a USB drive with Audioquest Diamond cable. Is there any reason I should switch to a network drive? By the way really excited about how well Tidal sounds, just wish there was more functionality like there is on the site.

Where can I go to find out what's in the new firmware releases? Thanks.

And I too agree with most everyone's opinion on this matter (and I do highly value Mr. Hartley's thoughts and reviews). MY opinion to date is after hearing the Vivaldi for the past couple of years, it is one of the greatest pieces of equipment I've ever heard. And speaking of reviewers, so do ALL of them. In this case, my main concern is the economics as I stated in my original post. I'm not rich, and it took quite some time and effort to scrape up the coin for the Vivaldi. So here we have the Vivaldi, the DAC which to my hearing has been the finest I have listened to and it costs $35,000. Along comes a very new DAC which several reviewers/people appear to think is exceptional for HALF the price. That's what gives me pause. My Vivaldi will be here this week or next, and yes I'm positive I'll love it. But wouldn't it have been nice to have saved $18,000 if the not readily available Berkeley is as good or better in most listening attributes? By the way, I am not a huge DSD proponent so that aspect currently doesn't sway me. But, $18,000 is a BUNCH of money.

wow!!

For the time being, almost all my listening will be done from CD rips using my MacBook Air and Amarra, with a few downloads from HDTrax, etc. On my current Puccini I don't up sample to DSD, I like PCM better. It sounds more "real" to me. I was thinking of adding the DCS upsampler sometime in the future, and that DXD might be better than PCM?. So another $19,000! How future proof do I need to make this stack if it maybe doesn't sound much better (or at all) than the Pacific Microsystems? Hmm, decisions?

It was Robert Harley in the latest TAS edition. This is very interesting to me. I just ordered a Vivaldi DAC which is due in about two weeks. What Robert and Chris have said is a bit of concern for me. Should I cancel the Vivaldi? Or IF it's true that the Berkeley is the better of the two, I wonder if DCS will implement some upgrade to keep it ahead and worth the $18,000 difference. Yikes. Steve