I'm generally quite careful when it comes to spending significant amounts of money on electronics (or anything else for that matter), so I was quite pleased when I was able to pick up a used Benchmark DAC1 at a good price a while back. With the PS Audio DL-III continuing to come down in price, I became interested in comparing it to the Benchmark.
This review is a direct comparison between the two products, which means that it need deal only with relative performance and eliminates the risk of getting bogged down in absolutes or superlatives.
The source was a Squeezebox Touch which supplied the DACs via S/PDIF co-axial cables. Since the Benchmark has a BNC connection, I could not use the same cable for each DAC, but I was able to use identical RCA cables from each DAC to the amplifier, in this instance my Arcam AVR350. In my world, digits are digits so it didn’t matter anyway.
Before beginning the test, I spent considerable time setting up the equipment. With my speakers 12’ apart, I set up a Behringer ECM 8000 microphone pointing upwards 12’ from each speaker. With my amplifier set to my usual listening volume and the Squeezebox at maximum, I used a DEQ2496 to send pink noise via a TOSLINK cable to the DL-III and measured the resulting SPL. I then switched to the DAC1 and adjusted its volume control until I measured the same SPL. I could now be confident that the two outputs were comparable. I repeated the whole thing at a distance of 16’ (which is my more usual listening distance), but the DAC1 needed no further adjustment. I also measured the background noise level in my room, which was 40 dBA.
The previous owner of my DAC1 had advised me to keep it turned on, because it sounds better when it’s warm. This is not the kind of thing you say to a non-believer like me, but I was astounded to discover that he was right and so I left the DL-III on for a couple of days too before getting started. The DL-III is a dealer’s demo model, so there were no breaking-in issues (another challenge for a sceptic like me). I was now ready to listen.
I usually draw on a selection of old favourites that give me a range of instruments and voices; these include Mark Knoppfler, Pink Martini, Jacintha, Alison Krauss, Quartango, Diana Krall, and probably a few others. I lean towards acoustic instruments, because I have a better feel for how they should sound.
I typically play the first 30-60 seconds of a track and then repeat the first 20-30 seconds several times to get used to its specific characteristics, then I pause, switch DACs, and repeat the track. I’ll probably do this several times before moving on to the next piece.
The result was rather disappointing. I’d read numerous glowing reviews of the DL-III and was surprised to find that it sounded rather flat and muffled compared to the DAC1 which was cleaner and had more presence. I was about to shut down for the day when I realised that the DL-III was switchable between 96 kHz and 192 kHZ. I switched to 192kHz and tried again. This time the DL-III had the cleaner sound and a little more presence, although the DAC1 still beat it on the latter point. I recruited my wife to listen to one track (she has limited patience for this sort of thing, although she can be very perceptive), and she came out (unprompted) with almost the same words: “clean” and “presence”.
Overall, the result was somewhat surprising, because I’d read that the DAC1 is considered to be cold and analytical which the DL-III is warm and natural. Perhaps this is why I avoid using words like detailed, analytical, dark, musical, fatiguing, and so on…they don’t mean much to me. “Natural” sounds like a useful objective though. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t describe the DAC1 as cold or the DL-III as warm, but I would say that the DL-III has a clearer sound when switched to 192kHz, and that the DAC1 has a larger presence which makes it more exciting to listen to.
Unfortunately, the exercise hasn’t helped me to decide which DAC to keep: I like the clarity of the DL-III, but love the presence of the DAC1. If anyone can suggest, from direct experience, a DAC that will give me the PS Audio’s clarity and the Benchmark’s presence at a sensible price, I’ll be a happy man!
ADDENDUM
Throughout the tests described above, there had been something about the DL-III at 192 kHz that had bothered me on some tracks. I subsequently spent several hours more listening to a few new tracks, specifically classical guitar. It quickly became obvious that something was not right; the guitar sounded harsh and metallic. The best analogy I can come up with is the feature of unsharp-masking in digital photoprocessing, where a slightly out of focus image can be given apparent sharpness by accentuating the boundaries around groups of pixels to increase the differences in contrast between groups. It was as if the sound had been sliced up and each slice trimmed back. While this might give a general impression of clarity or cleanness, with some music the result was very unnatural and quite unpleasant. This was surprising and very disappointing for a DAC that has had such good reviews. Just goes to show...
