Berkeley Design Alpha 2 DAC why doesn't it work with MacBook Air

[TommyTunes]

I have tried for four days straight to get through to them and can't reach anyone. I can not get the DAC to recognize an HDCD bit stream using a MacBook Air. Anyone have an answer?

 

[amirm]

Tom, I have escalated your case to them and asked them to call you. They have changed systems and such and communication has been spotty but they have responded to me.

For now, HDCD only works if the pathway applies no processing at all. Volume has to be max, no resampling, etc. What is the player you are using?

 

[TommyTunes]

Thanks Amir, I tried with both Amarra HIFI and iTunes. It does work fine on my MacBook Pro just not on the Air

 

[amirm]

I just heard from Michael at Berkeley. He apologized and said he is in a remote area until the 8th without internet access. He said he will contact you then.

For now, I suspect the pipeline is somehow different on Air. Are you using Aamara there too?

 

[TommyTunes]

I had it on the Air and then uninstalled it. I have tried everything. Thanks I'll wait unroll he calls, in the mean time I'll continue using the Pro

 

[amirm]

Thanks for your patience. Fee free to contact me if you don't get the call back at that time.

 

[TommyTunes]

Thanks for your help Amir, I was able to speak with Berkeley on Friday. Unfortunately the Mac Air is a different product from Mac's and they didn't have a solution so I'll just use my Mac Pro. Speaking with them did convince me to add the Alpha USB. So I guess I'll be spending more money to increase the performance of a really incredible DAC even further.

 

[amirm]

My pleasure. You are definitely on the right path. Once you get a proper USB adapter, you are essentially decoupled from vagaries of the source PC/Mac driving the DAC. For that reason, I make that "upgrade" first before I even upgrade DACs! Getting a clean signal to a DAC improves its fidelity as it doesn't have as hard of a job extracting the audio sample timings and keeping things from bleeding into the DAC.