GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: Berkeley Audio Design's Alfa Reference DAC.

Post Subject: A DAC as event or a State of Digital Union.Posted by Romy the Cat on: 9/4/2014

Well, leaving aside my "grinding axes", namely my habitual love to remind people and myself that there are plenty Morons in audio I do think that Berkeley's parley to Reference DAC is interesting. It is interesting not by the DAC as a unit but rather as DAC as event.

People who know me close know that I have a tendency for extrapolative abstraction and patterns generalization. Perhaps 20 years of acting in IT industry and career consultant did it to m, or perhaps it is my Jewishness is screaming in me, however it is what it is and I do see in the new Berkeley DAC a call for abstraction. Let me to explain.

When digital audio hit market in begin of 80s it was crap and most of what was done in 80s was not particularly good from good Sound perspective. They did have some phenomenal result at time but it was not due to the advance of digital but because the most barbaric digital techniques or today have not been developed or become a common practice and most of the editing at that time was done on analog domain. In the early 90s it was commonly understood but better digital designer and they went for drastic improvement of digital. In the beginning of 90s, pretty much at the same time different groups of the most potent digital designers come up with a new generation of digital possessors that never were seen in 80s and those devises did deliver very serious digital if it was handled properly. It is at that time Pacific folks come with this first Micriosonic model 1, Ed Meitner came up with his adoptive algorithms and IDAT implementation, Don Lavry came with his multi-bit and AD line and former Studer's Daniel Weiss hit the market with his 102 Series. They were a very new level of digital - they were good and with proper digital hygiene they delivered a lot. There were other good movements but I mentioned just a few larger designing housed juts for sake of illustration.

In 90s, even those good tools were available, the industry was descending into own digital infection disease state, still with good tools the people with proper digital hygiene and some skills were able to get very good results from digital. In my view, and if to look only at Redbook CD the mid of 90 was the best vintage of CD production.

In the end of 90s and over the bend of the century a paranoia to make higher sampling rate available for wide consumers become spreading. The consumer 2X and 4X possessors become to pop up like mushrooms after rain but there was no advance in Sound with it. In addition Sony/Philips were fighting the 2001 expiration of CD patent and they were desperate to bring a new digital media to the market. Meitner give them DSD and SACD that was compromised half-measure and even a lot of people of music industry do unfortunately use DSD it still failed to become a new standard. The higher sampling rate PCM never was ratified for consumers...

So, now we have mid of the 2000 teens. What the old big digital warhorses do? The Pacific folks former Berkeley and after making cheap 5K consumer-level toy, good enough to entertain idiots-reviewers they presumably come up with new pure PCM Berkeley Dereference DAC that should be labeled "25 years after PM1". Meitner clan keep breeding DSD unit and companies, milking his favorite SACD cow. Nowadays he is at 8bit and 4 time of original DSD sampling. It should be good. If it was original 4bit DSD as Meitner did in 2000 but that never seen a commercial light then DSD might won the war then... Lavry and the Co. released last year a new Reference DAC that he feel shell be "25 years after DA924", it is very little know about it and Lavry, who was in past always very prolific and descriptive about his vision and idea keeps the new secrets of the new implementation under the wraps. Weiss got his new 4X product line in 2003-2006 and still holds it.

For sure during the last 25 years many thing change, the parts, the technologies and the design ideas and many other aspects. To me the most interesting thing is that all thus guys are 25 years older and this might be a problem. 25 years back they were adult experience people, very much the leader of own field. They still are, even there were many talented newcomers. However, the spent 25 years of boiling in the spiritually highly toxic and gratification-wise-ugly environment of audio industry. I have seen so many brilliant designers who were grinded by the stupid industry and who with time start produce very cynically sounding audio garbage or some questionably acceptable products but the nowhere near what might be expected from their former talent. So, would the vintage of "25 years after" to sound in the way how we presumably expect them to be? I have no answer and at this time I did not even was looking to find it.

Rgs, Romy The Cat

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