Mytek Manhattan or Berkeley Alpha or PS Audio Direct Stream
Now that I have some extra time on my hands for listening, I have decided to upgrade my DAC. My present DAC is the Naim DAC-V1, which cost around $2500. While it has preamp & headphone amp functions, I am using it only as a DAC. My source is ripped CDs, via a Naim Uniti Core ripper. I have no interest in streaming, so all the add ons that allow streaming are not important to me. The DAC runs into a Conrad Johnson preamp into a Primaluna amp driving Maggies. I listen to mostly acoustic folk/rock, female vocals and acoustic jazz/blues. I am a sucker for big soundstage, warm voices and detail on the acoustic instruments.
I have narrowed down the list to:
Mytek Manhattan
PS Audio Direct Stream
Berkeley Alpha
All of these are series 2, or II, but I am omitting these suffixes for brevity. Just know I am looking at the latest models.
i have favorable impressions of all, based upon some listening at trade shows and/or dealers, limited by unfamiliar mating components and rooms. My budget is in the $5-7k range, although the Berkeley is a bit less. I will consider broken in (used) for a few dollars less.
I am wondering if anyone has experience actually comparing any two of these units? Or if you own one, why did you choose it and what did you not buy? Or if you seriously considered one of these, only to buy something different, what did you buy instead.
I’ll throw one more thought into this. I have considered the moon simaudio 650, which is in the price range, and is a transport and DAC in the same chassis, as adding a transport back into my system in not without merit. But my decision will be based upon the DAC only, as I could add a transport other ways.
thanks,
Bill