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I own Bliss Hifi, a high-end audio boutique based in Minnesota. This Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB is in on consignment from one of my local clients. The unit is in good condition and in perfect working order, with some wear on the top and side seams. This is the original Alpha USB, now succeeded by the Alpha USB Series 2 and the Alpha USB Reference Series ($1,895 original MSRP, discontinued). Note that owners of the original can upgrade to Series 2 performance through Berkeley’s factory upgrade program for $220 plus shipping.

The unit comes with its original packaging.

The Alpha USB is one of those products that should not work as well as it does for what it is. It is a small, unassuming box that takes USB in and outputs AES/EBU or S/PDIF, and yet its impact on a digital front end is disproportionate to its size and simplicity. What it does is isolate the electrically noisy USB environment from your DAC and reclock the signal using individually tested, hand-selected precision oscillators before sending it downstream. Robert Harley called it a breakthrough product, and after hearing what it does in a well-resolved system, that is not an exaggeration. The noise floor drops, the image sharpens, and there is a textural refinement and ease to the presentation that makes you realize just how much USB noise was contaminating your DAC’s performance. This is true even with DACs that have well-regarded USB inputs. Berkeley’s own DACs do not even include USB inputs because they refuse to compromise the internal chassis environment, and the Alpha USB is how they solve that problem. This particular unit was part of a reference-level Aurender W20SE and Berkeley Alpha DAC system. It pairs naturally with any DAC that has AES/EBU (XLR) or S/PDIF (BNC) inputs, and if your DAC lacks a native USB input or you want to bypass one, this remains one of the most effective digital upgrades available at any price.

There are currently several other pieces from this client’s collection available. Take a look through our preowned listings to see them all.

Happy to answer any questions. Thanks for your consideration.

Check my stellar feedback and buy with confidence. This listing includes free insured shipping across the CONUS. As this is a passthrough sale that I am brokering on behalf of my client, I prefer to accept payments via PayPal F&F, Venmo Gift, or personal check, but this also gives you the opportunity to attain this at my lowest possible price. Credit card payments are also possible for a 3.1% convenience charge.

More about the unit:

The Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB is an asynchronous USB Audio 2.0 to digital audio interface designed to extract the highest possible audio quality from computer and music server sources. Designed by Michael “Pflash” Pflaumer, whose multidisciplinary background includes writing the DSP code that made HDCD possible, analog circuit design, and RF engineering. The Alpha USB accepts a USB Audio 2.0 High Speed input (Type B) and provides a switch-selectable output: coaxial S/PDIF on a 75-ohm BNC connector or balanced AES/EBU on a 110-ohm XLR connector. Sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz are supported at up to 24-bit word length. The design achieves an unprecedented degree of electrical isolation between the USB input and the digital audio output. The USB receiver and processing circuitry are powered entirely by the source computer’s USB bus, while the output master clocks and line drivers are powered by a separate, isolated linear power supply within the Alpha USB’s chassis. There is no DC connection between the USB input and the audio output, along with a high degree of capacitive and inductive isolation. The digital audio output is clocked by one of two precision crystal oscillators: one for the 44.1kHz family of sampling frequencies (44.1, 88.2, 176.4kHz) and one for the 48kHz family (48, 96, 192kHz). Each oscillator is individually measured on a specialized instrument that creates a spectragraph of the oscillator’s phase noise, and only the best-measuring parts are selected for use; the rest are rejected. This measurement process costs many times what the oscillator itself costs. The Alpha USB is compatible with Apple macOS (Snow Leopard and later), Microsoft Windows (10 release 1703 and above without additional drivers; earlier versions require the included Berkeley Windows driver), and Linux-based music servers (ALSA 1.0.23 or above). Includes a 6-foot IEC power cord. Dimensions: 10.5 x 2.5 x 5 inches. Weight: 2.5 lbs. Power consumption: 3 watts (line), 1.5 watts (USB). Designed for continuous operation. The Alpha USB earned four consecutive Editor’s Choice awards from The Absolute Sound.

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