dCS Rossini vs. Berkeley Reference dac 2

I haven't heard the dCS. But I just received a Berkeley Reference 2, swapped from an original Reference. The difference is Not Subtle. Huge Upgrade. Much more musical. The trace of hardness in the upper mods and highs is gone. I'm super satisfied with the Berkeley Alpha Reference 2.

Spell check. Mids, to be clear. Also, the Berkeley is Awesome driving amps directly. I prefer it driving my Ayre MX-R Twenties directly, to running through an Ayre KX-R Twenty preamp.

Thanks for these latest posts.  I'm queued up for the upgrade program, ref 1 to 2, but it may take a while.  Great to hear the change is substantial.  I too am scratching my head over your experience with vs without preamp.  It raises the question of whether you have a cabling issue?  I also run the same Ayre products and with ref1, using the KX-R 20 sounds vastly superior, well beyond issues of attenuation.  Enjoy!

The Berkeley upgrade is Substantial, not subtle. You will be pleased. I have no cabling issue. If I drive my Atma Sphere MA-1 amps, the sound is both much more dynamic and focused using the Ayre preamp in the chain. So I am not universally bemoaning the use of a preamp. Preamps have merit. I'm just saying that I prefer the sound of the Berkeley Reference 2 DAC driving my Ayre MX-R Twenties directly, with no preamp. I have two runs of balanced Synergistic Element CTS, so its a piece of cake to A\B the sound with or without a preamp. With the Ayre preamp in the chain, the sound is more focused, so I prefer the more airy Synergistic presentation. With the Berkeley driving the Ayre amps directly, I prefer a shade more focus, and run Audioquest WEL. I hear more details, and more realistic harmonics around those details without the preamp, in this case.