The following are customer comments regarding their first experience with the Omega IV DAC

"Frank:

As you know, I have been a long time customer of Audio by Van Alstine. Each time I have purchased a new piece of equipment from you, I have felt that it was a real addition to my enjoyment of the music and another step towards bringing the live performance into my home. I just installed your new DAC unit in my system and this time it was different. With each previous component that I added in the past, I could hear another layer gauze of removed and more of the real music emerge. With you new DAC unit, it is as if the live music is in my house. The clarity of each instrument and the placement of it on the stage creates a genuine 'you are there' experience. While my system gave me much enjoyment before and a great deal of realism, I now find myself just listening to the pure music and not analyzing what I am hearing to pick out the elements of realism. I could go on with all of the usual audiophile BS, but that would not do justice the realism that I am enjoying in the music. I think that is really the key point with this new DAC - it really opens up a pure sensory experience. With this new DAC together with your other components, I do not think in the usual terms of "tight bass" and "open, airy highs". In fact I don't find myself thinking about the system at all, just the music. Congratulations to you and your team on an outstanding achievement and thanks for your good advice to get this upgrade.

Scott Minick"

"I've known Frank Van Alstine for 17 years. He first sold me a modified Grado cartridge in 1982 and was willing to spend the time to set it up properly. The attention to detail I received in that first encounter, along with the quality of product received, is what has made me a loyal AVA customer over the years. I have heard or owned every AVA CD player series along the way, including the Omega III DAC. I compared the new Omega IV to an Omega III DAC in my system.

The Omega IV DAC was shipped to me two months ago, (around 8/99) so I've had a fair amount of time to spend listening. I am a music lover first and equipment collector second. My audio system includes a Philips CD transport with digital coax out, an AVA omega III preamp, current generation Fet-Valve AVA amplifier, and Biro L/1 speakers. When the Omega IV DAC replaced the Omega III DAC, there was a dramatic (really dramatic) improvement from top to bottom. The sense of dynamics was just profound. The elusive "you are there" quality was there in every way. It sounds as though a layer of "crud" has been removed from the audio chain. It is extremely resolving. Violins sounded like violins.Voices (check out Renee Fleming on her new Strauss disc) are produced with a sense of realism that I haven't heard before through audio equipment. Before the DAC IV had been in my system long, there was a stack of 30 or so CDs on the floor. I wanted to hear my favorite discs again. I felt that, for the first time, I had equipment capable of extracting all of of the music out of my compact discs. This is not just good, pleasant sounding equipment. Instead, it strikes me as a profoundly accurate and musical sounding stuff. Five stars!!!!!!!!"

"I've had an Audio by Van Alstine Omega IV DAC (digital to analog converter) in my system (connected to the digital output of a TEAC CD player) for about two months. I was amazed at the difference it made when I first hooked it up and am still stunned by its ability to retrieve information I never suspected was there.

I've had the opportunity to compare the Omega IV DAC with both a variety of CD players (owned by friends who participated in listening tests) and with AVA's previous solid-state DAC.

The differences between the analog outputs of all tested CD players and my TEAC-DAC combination were overwhelming.

1. The Omega IV DAC allowed listeners to easily hear the "bodies" of instruments and singers and the acoustic environments in which they were recorded. By comparison, the analog outputs of CD players portrayed performers as two-dimensional and disembodied. A piano that the analog outputs of CD players reproduced as a tinny upright was revealed by the Omega IV DAC to be a magnificent Steinway Grand. A violin the analog outputs of CD players portrayed as barely worthy of second violinist in a high school orchestra was revealed by the Omega IV DAC to be a one of the world's great instruments. The CD players stripped a woodwind quintet recording of hall sound; the Omega IV DAC brought the ensemble to life and allowed listeners to convincingly place the quintet in the hall in which the recording was made.

2. The Omega IV DAC rendered the tonal characteristics of instruments and voices much more accurately. While it was easy enough to identify most instruments when listening to the analog outputs of CD players, their sound had a "shrill" edge. No instrument ever sounded vaguely "real." With the Omega IV DAC in the circuit, instruments were often convincingly present. Similarly, human voices sounded unmistakably more realistic, expressive and musically interesting through the Omega IV DAC.

3. It was often difficult to tell the difference between violins and violas through the audio outputs of CD players. The Omega IV DAC made these differences (and many others) easy to determine. Differences between "instruments" ranging from singers' voices to drum sets were much more striking with the Omega IV DAC.

4. The Omega IV DAC revealed much more high frequency and transient detail than the analog outputs of tested CD players. While none of those players came close to convincingly resolving the sound of brushed cymbals, snare drums, trombones, saxophones or bowed violins, the Omega IV DAC shocked my friends with the realism and drama with which it resolved the complex attacks and decays of these instruments.

5. Unlike the analog outputs of CD players, which sounded "crisp" most of the time, the Omega IV DAC never sounded "crisp" when reproducing unamplified music. However, live performances of such music never sounds "crisp;" the "crisp highs" lauded in stereo advertisements are a form of distortion. The Omega IV DAC could sound "crisp" when reproducing electric guitars or amplified voices, which can be "crisp" as a result of tone control settings and amplifier characteristics. In fact, the Omega IV DAC resolved this "crispness" - when it was on recordings — much more clearly than the unaided CD players did!

6. The Omega IV DAC made music much more enjoyable. Music that seemed boring through the analog outputs of tested CD players was often fascinating when played through the Omega IV DAC. The Omega IV DAC allowed listeners to hear the subtle ways musicians expressed themselves. These same details were "lost" by the CD players' D-A converters and analog circuits.

Differences between AVA's previous solid-state digital to analog converter and the Omega IV DAC were much less striking. While far superior to any of the unaided CD players (and both tonally accurate and easy to listen to), the Omega III DAC was no match for the Omega IV's resolution of hall sound, instrumental "body" sound, musical dynamics and - most important - musically significant details. While the Omega III remains a bargain, the Omega IV is more musically interesting and exciting.

The impact of AVA's new Omega IV DAC the sound of your system is, of course, limited by the resolving power of your electronics and speakers. However, if you're reasonably satisfied with your system, it may be one of the most important and cost-effective upgrades available".