Good dac to reproduce soprano vocals?

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. To be more specific about my request, I am currently using a "pretty good" dac (the Calyx 24/192) which does a beautiful job with female vocals in general. Karrin Allyson's jazz album "Round Midnight" (a 48k/24bit download) sounds fabulous. What I'm referring to is the soprano vocalist who can produce an immediate crescendo of immense power and beauty. I have only heard this done with any grace by the Berkeley Audio Alpha, and it was lacking the warmth of the real thing. In my system, those powerful crescendos on a redbook cd are typically hard and glassy.

In most cases, I'm thinking that 44.1k/16 bit recordings just aren't capable of capturing this accurately without some "reinterpretation or interpolation" by a dac. If you want to know what I'm talking about take a listen to Kiri Te Kanawa's cds from the 80s and 90s. And the latest from Susan Graham (a mezzo) isn't a whole lot better. Are these performances just going to be lost in the wake of the turn to digital recording?

I'm not sure CD format is a barrier to good female vocals.

I can vouch that mhdt Constantine or Paradisea tube dac possibly with a minor tube upgrade like NOS TUng Sol can do them well if teh system overall is up to the task.

Try a well built DAC based on the venerable TDA1541 chip, peferably Double Crown. The ones I've heard preserves the timbre of female vocals like no other modern DACs, closest to a vinyl rig. The modern DACs may be better at soundstaging and imaging and frequency extension, but no modern DAC I've heard can beat a NOS ladder DAC when it comes to vocals and acoustic instruments sounding like the real thing.

Hfl,
Was the Berkeley Audio Alpha the Alpha2? If not perhaps you could give that one a listen as it has been refined a bit over the original.

HF - the problem with glassiness you are experiencing is due to two things:

1) the poor digital filter that the DAC imposes on that sample-rate
2) high jitter

I listen to 44.1 tracks all day long and don't get any of this glassiness or hardness. I do select a more optimum digital filter on my DAC. If you are at the Newport Beach show, come to the Atrium hotel and have a listen to my system.

I used to upsample everything to eliminate these nasties, but with the right digital filter (or no digital filter as in NOS DACs) and low jitter it is not necessary anymore.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio