DAC - DCS Bartok or the new Berkeley Alpha DAC 3

I currently utilize a DCS Bartok in my system which does pair with a Mac Mc302 and C48 Preamp. I was blown away with the soundstage of the Bartok. Coming from a Bluesound Node2i I was able to hear the comparison. Two completely different leagues. The Bartok opened up the sound and vastly increased both the upper and lower registers with a tighter crisper sound. Best of luck.

I was in the same predicament. I demo’d the DCS which I found very good but unfortunately I couldn’t demo Berkeley.

A local dealer let me home demo a lumin x1 and to my surprise I found the lumin better... so now I own that. Punches above it's price point imo

Go with whatever looks best.

@andyhifiman

For your Node 2i, did you happen to do the PSU upgrade(PD Creative) and get an SBooster LPS or other LPS?

I did all that and added an upgraded power cable and all of that made a very big and perceptible sonic upgrade to the "basic" Node 2i.

All that being said, I would assume that a HiFi Rose RS 250 et al would best my upgraded Node 2i as I am using the Burr Brown PCM 1792 DAC in my Classe SSP-800 processor. Which is very good still....

But I do wonder if a quality external DAC like a Benchmark 3B or Holo May would best a streamers internal DAC. But you are increasing your investment.

I actually have experience with the Bartok I used to own one ...  I sold the bartok cause lumin announced multiroom I bought the X1 and 2 M1s and I thought I was all set.  

The problem was the lumins do not sync they play a half second off so it sounds horrible in a close zoned multi room set up.  Lumin has this in fine print on their site but I think they should make it clear in their marketing material.  Why make a multi room set up which does not sink.

Anyway....I will be listing a bunch of Lumin gear once I buy the new stuff.  I like the sound of the Lumin and the bartok and a ways back I had the Berkeley Alpha dac 2 which I liked as well.

One thought I had was to go with the Bartok which I could use for 2 channel critical listening and then go with the blue sound or mind2 for the multi room listening.

I know what your thinking I kinda have a gear problem LOL