I have Berkeley dac and was using the optical output on a 2010 Mac Mini. Then I bought the Weiss Int 202 and connected with a firewire from the Mini too the Weiss and from there I use a AES XLR into the Berkeley dac, the result was jaw breaking. I found it hard to believe that by only doing this can have this wonderful effect on the music.
My setup from the Berkeley dac is to a Moon Amp and then the signal is feed into Marten Bird speakers.