Weiss Minerva Dac

i've heard the Minerva. as much as i wanted to like it, i found it to sound rather artificial (it had a "copy & paste" type of presentation / very little cohesion btw the performers). the Weiss Medea DAC i heard immediately after that was MUCH better.

Has anyone compared the Minerva with BOTH Firewire and XLR cable from a Lynx AE16 card?

I hope all posters will indicate which INTERFACE they are using AND identify the SOURCE component or computer!

Also, a comparison between the Minerva DAC and the Berkeley Alpha DAC would be great but the interfaces and sources used must be disclosed in each case. Both accept XLR.

Thanks in advance for accurate info!

There's a review currently on at: www.computeraudophile.com on the Berkeley DAC. I believe he compares it to the Minerva DAC as well

I've heard the Minerva against the Berkeley, both being fed AES/EBU from a very high-quality server. However, the Berkeley was run directly into the amps while the Minerva was run through a preamp. I expect to hear the two compared again in a few days, in a completely different system.

In that first setting, I preferred the Berkeley in every way. But it might be different in a different system.