"You know," Alon Wolf told us. A lot of what you liked about the sound of my music server was the Pacific Microsonics Model Two DAC I was using. But that's no longer manufactured, this is even better and only $5000."

He pointed at Berkeley Audio Design Associates' Alpha DAC. It did seem pretty fly; 32–192kHz sampling rates, 24-bit word lengths, HDCD decoding, advanced input signal jitter rejection, and specs that were just stunningly low.

We're betting it's a DAC to watch, listen to—you know what we mean.