From what I’ve experienced so far, it’s a worthwhile upgrade in the context of the amount of money they’re asking for it. It maybe moved the needle by 10% or thereabout more than the Version 1 so I wouldn’t rush right out and get this done if you’ve got other areas that can be improved.
That said, in conjunction with everything else I’ve done recently I’m really spending a lot of time thinking about the “diminishing returns” idea in the hobby as you progress and challenging that as an automatically accepted comment.
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Replying to this like a year later, lol, but I just wanted to say thank you again for the heads up! I finally sent my Alpha USB in and my upgraded Series 2 just arrived today (they charged me $307 total with Paypal fees and stuff). Took a little over a week to ship it there, have them update it, and have it shipped back.
I’ve only been listening to it for less than two hours, but seems worth it so far.
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Any chance you could snap a pic of the insides to see what the changes look like?
There is series 2 HW as when I bought mine from a dealer as a dealer demo the board is stenciled with a series two and has a 2024 date with some of the ICs also sporting 2024 dates and look somewhat different. I didn’t have them side by side but there are minor differences. I wouldn’t sweat it though.
The sending it in to Berkeley is only SW update.
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Do you think the SW update is a worthwhile upgrade?
It helped, if you’re trying o squeeze the most out of an endgame chain. Wouldn’t bother otherwise.
It was a mistake my getting rid of the Alpha USB and it’s one of those things I paid a premium to get back. 
No shame in admitting we had a premature ejection and our system goes limp and listless.
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I mean, I’m at the point where a cable upgrade would cost me more than the $300 for the software update, so “worthwhile” is definitely relative, but I feel like it was worth it for me.
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