Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Owners?

I have heard the Berkley unit with both red book and hi rez source material. It has always sounded wonderful...smooth, articulate, relaxing and right...I am very impressed with it, especially at the price...

I have had the Berkeley for several months now, and it has effectively ended my search for ever better digital playback (after years of auditioning various highly regarded players). As far as redbook CDs, I have ripped most of mine to a computer I have set up as a server in my system. I use Exact Audio Copy to rip the CDs, either in FLAC or WAV files. The sound is phenomenal, which was crucial for me since the vast majority of my music is in good old redbook.

The Berkeley just sounds 'right' to me, and is equally adept with all kinds of music, from rock to jazz to bluegrass. It has been a real revelation in my system, and I highly recommend it.

Thanks for your responses. The review in the latest TAS was very positive as well. Unfortunately, there is no dealer in my area where I can hear one.

I don't know of any way that I can listen to this unit in my system - there are only 7 listed dealers, and not a single one in my quadrant of the country - so like the originator of this thread I have been trying to find out whether this unit compares favorably on redbook to good, standalone players.

Has anyone done direct comparisons between this unit and highly regarded standalone players on redbook in their systems? I have searched widely and read reviews but there aren't many of these types of comparisons.

I ask about direct and specific comparisons because I had a recent experience with another very highly regarded and very well reviewed DAC which sounded good in the abstract, but when compared directly with an Ayre CD player in the same system at the same time it wasn't even remotely in the same league.

If this DAC is comparable to an Ayre (for example) on redbook in a direct comparison, then it is a perfect solution for the system I am about to build. If it isn't, then it makes no sense for me to sacrifice redbook quality on all the disks I own in exchange for the "next gen" features of this unit.

Computer Audiophile thinks this is on par with the Weiss Minerva. UltraAudio Jeff Fritz said the Weiss Minerva was the best CD he had experienced, better than Arc CD7 and Esoteric X03.
I have compared the Weiss with MBL top transport and dac on very short listen, the Weiss is very good!