Accustic Arts Tube Dac II or Berkley Alpha DAC

HiRez is the future. Go with the Berkeley.

Fm540i, I too own a AA Tube Hybrid DAC and have compared its performance on redbook to the Berkley, the AA DAC for me was much more musical/natural sounding to my ear's. I own over 6000 redbook CD's and really don't care about HiRez and still have not found a better sounding DAC then the AA Tube DAC in my system.

Does the AA Tube DAC have volume control or do does it need a preamp?

You need a preamp. I have a Chord CPA 5000. Thanks Teejay. I purchased the AA Tube DAC II based in part on your excellent review.

When comparing the AA and Berkeley, were they both run through a preamp or was the Berkeley run direct to amp?