[zoltanmocsary]

This is a succinct review of the Benchmark DAC-1. We bought it and tested it with an audiophile friend of mine.
I will not go into technical detail since I am not an engineer.  I chose this DAC based on the available literature and its very affordable price---I  have a good horse sense for hunting down  equipment which performs way beyond its price point.
The jitter immunity and built in headphone amplifier, ample gain to drive a power amp without a separate preamp  are very attractive features and the 30 day return guarantee is most reassuring.
 
 My initial impressions: sparkling transparency, meticulous detail, unbridled dynamics, compared to my Sony 930 XE  (European version, battery-powered with mods), which was the CD player of the year on the Old Continent in 1999 and is considered to be a serious  player.
The DAC-1  sounded as if a veil were removed from the music;   I was listening through a wide, open window,  as opposed to eavesdropping through closed doors before.
 
  Was I a hundred percent satisfied? Not initially.   There was a certain leanness in the midrange;  it lacked the lushness and bloominess characteristic of analogue playback and tube-based digital systems (which, on the other hand, usually sacrifice detail and transparency).
Benchmark explains this midrange thinness  as as  a lack of “lower midrange grunge” which plagues many a digital converter.  I attributed this to the ability of the Benchmark to reveal the innate shortcomings of the digital recording—a candid, faithful revelation of the original source.

  The Benchmark has an internal power supply and  comes with a stock power cord. This means that its performance must be dependent, to some extent, on the quality of the power which is fed into it.  Our favourable experiences  with the Cardas Golden Reference Power cord led to the obvious trial of one of these cords, on the Benchmark.   The result was nothing short of breathtaking:  the sound blossomed  and acquired a lushness which is the coveted attribute of analogue.  The background is exceptionally quiet, the voices and instruments have palpable space around them, the treble is ethereal: the last vestige of harshness is expunged from digital.  This rivals the best analogue and even transcends it in some ways, by eliminating the noise and the distortion. The music flows effortlessly and exudes the aura of the live performance.

 Those people who scoffed at, or were lackadaisical about the Benchmark DAC-1,  including the hasty and superficial reviewer of  Stereophile,  have only heard it with the stock power cord. If one wants to drive the unit to its full potential, one needs to use a quality power cord.
 
We compared the Benchmark DAC1 to the Sony SCD-1 which has one of the best DAC’s built and the two sounded virtually identical. The DAC was run through the coaxial output of the SCD-1. My friend owns a Philips SCD-1000 and finds the DAC-1 more transparent and revealing.  

There are certain requirements to be met when using this DAC, if one wishes to unleash its magic:

1.   It is very sensitive to different transports: the better the transport, the better the sound.  One does not have to use a megabuck transport, however; we had spectecular results with the Pioneer 525 DVP and it got even better with the Harman Cardon 7600 CDP. The Sony 930 XE did not perform as well.

2.   It is sensitive to the type of digital cable used: we tried a Radio Shack cable first, which was acceptable; the sound vastly improved with a custom-made cheap video cable and finally, became totally transparent and engaging by switching to  a Cardas reference silver cable.  We have not tried the unit yet with an optical cable.

3.   You have to use a top notch power cord. The quality of the cord  which has as  profound an effect on the sound as the transport and the digital cable combined.

4. The built in headphone amplifier is stellar and gets you to audio nirvana if you drive  Grado RS-1 headphones with it.  I tried the Sennheiser HD-600 as well but this headphone is not in the same league with the Grado: sounds muffled and compressed in comparison.

Our conclusion is that the Benchmark will push 16/44 playback technology  to its limits and is as good as it gets in a 24 bit/96 KHz converter.  I have absolutely no motivation to fool around with analogue any longer, having achieved fully satisfying musicality with digital playback  and even question the superiority of SACD over a high quality 16 bit recording decoded by this DAC, if the rest of the equipment is up to par.
 
Associated equipment:   Sony 930 XE CDP, Sony SCD-1, Pioneer 525 DVP, Harman Kardon 7600 CDP as transports, 2 Odyssey Stereo Stratos in biamplified configuration, Energy Audyssey APS 5+2 speakers biamped and biwired, custom-made silver cables and interconnects, Monster HTS 2500 power conditioner

[Rob Babcock]

Great review; sounds like a serious piece of gear.  How about an info link?

Thanks a lot.

[zoltanmocsary]

Here is the link:

www.benchmarkmedia.com

Zoltan

[Tonto Yoder]

John Marks "reviewed" the Benchmark in a recent Stereophile quite favorably.

Can't remember his exact words, but it was something like "least expensive piece of gear that can truly be call high end."

[kana813]

Having spent some time with the DAC-1 in my system, I can only add to zoltanmocsary's review, by saying this little bugger is the real deal.

[michael w]

Excellent value for sure.

But to say it pushes 16/44 technology to it's limits ?

LOL

Have a listen to some real SOTA digital equipment.

 

[Thump553]

About the headphone comment, the Senn 600's take far more power to run properly than do the Grados.  With certain very limited exceptions (Melos being one) regular audio gear just isn't going to drive the Senn 600s properly, you need a quality standalone headphone amp.

What you observed isn't a defect with the Senns or this DAC unit, you were just asking the DAC to do more than it is really capable of.

[kana813]

michael w- please tell us, what is the " real SOTA digital equipment" ?

Have you heard the DAC-1?

[michael w]

Hi kana813,

In this context real SOTA digital is that which really pushes Redbook to it's performance limits regardless of any constraints. The Benchmark while very good is hardly as good as it gets.

If you want to sample SOTA Redbook then take a look and listen to digital equipment from the likes of Accuphase, Burmester, DCS, Esoteric, Krell, Linn, Mark Levinson, Wadia, to name a few.
 
A good friend recently bought a Benchmark for his second system.
We listened to it here and found it to be extremely good value for money.

Tried with a Sony 7000 & 7700 as transport, there was much improvement over the Sony DACs. Good enough to blitz a Sony 9000es SACD player.

But it proved to be out of it's league when asked to replace the DAC stages of a Wadia 861 and Marantz CD-23.

Later at my friend's place he got similar results when he compared the benchmark to his Krell KPS-25. Very good but not *that* good.

It all depends on the perspective from which you are looking at the Benchmark from. Compared with players like the Sonys, HK etc, yes the BM is amazing but less so when put up against the big boys of digital.


cheers

[kana813]

michael w- Mahalo for taking the time to respond.

Nice to see that people on this forum comment on things they've actually
heard.

I'd love to hear some of the CDPs on your SOTA list, but there's not much hiend gear in HI.

I can live with "very good," while I wait for the next big thing in digital
to happen for less than $2K.

Aloha.

[zoltanmocsary]

We can get demo models of the DAC-1 significantly  below the $850 retail price for anyone, who is interested.  Of course the 30 day return policy would apply so there is nothing to lose.
 There is nothing out there that can beat it for the price, even if one spends 3-4 times more. It eliminates the need for a line stage preamp since it can drive a power amp directly, and it has the best headphone amp we've heard, which further increases the bang-for-the-buck ratio.

Zoltan

[cyounkman]

I find this kind of thread extremely interesting. I should say to begin that I appreciate the original review, and found it very informative on its own.

The later inevitable performance comparisons to other equipment (in a typically simplified better/worse framework) are still helpful, however; if for no other reason than to establish the steepness of the curve of diminishing returns. It sounds like it's getting very steep indeed.

However, I share michael w's initial skepticism in the face of assertions that this or any $1k dac can truly redefine the potential of redbook, etc. This is not to say the unit can't be an astronomical value, of course; but I don't see any harm in establishing that a $1k dac does not live up to the standard of, say, a $4k integrated player or a $20k two-piece system.

With that said, I've heard similarly ambitious claims made about a number of other digital front-ends. A random list in no particular order:
the dAck!
the M-Audio SuperDAC
the Nixon TubeDAC
the Modwrighted PerpTech P3A

Does anyone have experience with these? More importantly, can anyone relate their performance to the current spate of $2k-$3k players (the Copland, the Ayre, the GamuT, etc.)?

[kent]

We can get demo models of the DAC-1 significantly  below the $850 retail price for anyone, who is interested.  Of course the 30 day return policy would apply so there is nothing to lose.
 There is nothing out there that can beat it for the price, even if one spends 3-4 times more. It eliminates the need for a line stage preamp since it can drive a power amp directly, and it has the best headphone amp we've heard, which further increases the bang-for-the-buck ratio.

Zoltan

Thanks for an interesting review, Zoltan. But who is "we" in the quote above, and what do you mean by "getting" the DAC1 for people? Are you affiliated with a dealer? Are you reselling the DAC1? If so, I missed that info in your review.

I agree with the previous comment that your dismissal of the Sennheiser 600's needs some further explanation. Although there are certainly people who prefer the Grados, even Grado fans generally acknowledge the Sennheisers' remarkable quality. The Sennheisers are pretty universally regarded as outstanding transducers when paired with any adequately powerful headphone amp. Indeed, many of the recordings you auditioned the DAC1 with were probably mastered using Sennheiser 600's.

When we consider (I'm using the royal "we" here   ) that the Senns are used as a studio reference standard for mastering, and we consider that you judge the Senns to be far inferior transducers to the RS1s, how exactly am I to assess your rave impressions of the DAC1?  

The DAC1 is specced as a high-current headphone amp, so inadequate power seems unlikely to explain your reaction to the Senns.

Puzzled but intrigued,

Kent

P.S. In case the manufacturer is listening in: I'd be interested in this DAC if it had a remote control. Without a remote, I don't see how it can substitute for an active preamp. Remote volume control is necessary for critical listening, since recordings are mastered -- and sound most realistic -- at very different levels.

[Hantra]

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I do want to respond to this:

the dAck!
the M-Audio SuperDAC
the Nixon TubeDAC
the Modwrighted PerpTech P3A

Does anyone have experience with these? More importantly, can anyone relate their performance to the current spate of $2k-$3k players (the Copland, the Ayre, the GamuT, etc.)

CY:

I have the Nixon TubeDAC.  I have lived with it for about a year.  In that year, I have compared my DAC directly to many other DAC's in head-to-head listening tests.  I have posted most of these comparisons on this site, so you can go back to read the details.  Without even adding the upgraded power supply, I compared the Nixon TubeDAC to the Bel Canto DAC2, Musical Fidelity A324, MENSA DI/O, Arcam CD-72, Zanden 5000MkII, Audio Note DAC 3.1x Balanced, Audio Note CD3.1x, Audiomeca's DAC, the Audio Analogue Paganini, NorthStar Designs CD-192 combo, and an AVM player.

Here's the list of what bettered it:

Audio Note DAC 3.1x Balanced.

I have a friend who has the dAck, which I haven't heard.  He likes it better than his Ayre, or Resolution Audio.  The dAck was originally based on Nixon's boards, so I am assuming they sound similar.  I just don't want any battery powered hi-fi.  That's worse than having to babysit tube-amps!

I hope this at least answered your question.

L8r,

B

[Rob Babcock]

Far be it from me to tell you what you should like, Hantra, but I'm not sure the battery thing would be so bad.  I thought it would be, too, but it sounds like the batteries last quite awhile and it charges itself with no user intervention wheneven it's not playing something.

I'm not sure what to think about any of these DACs.  I'm sure they're all good, but everyone seems to have a different opinion.  Lots of folks have stated the DI/O is much better than the Nixon, but I know that you've found the opposite to be true.  Still, once I get the amp situation resolved, I'd like to get the ACK! to try it out.  The price is certainly attractive enough.

[zoltanmocsary]

Hi Kent,

Sorry for the delayed response--I had trouble logging in for several days because forgot my password.
 I am not affiliated with a dealer but I got the DAC1 from a good friend of mine who has a dealer licence and was able to pass some savings on to me. With regard to the headphone debate, I did not try the Sennheisers with the DAC1 --- I had compared the Senns to the Grado RS1 on a SONY XB 930 CD player and the Grados sounded much more open, transparent and natural. The Senns, while excellent 'phones, sounded dark, choked and compressed in comparison. Perhaps the gain of the headphone amp in the Sony was inadequate for the Senns. The difference would probably be smaller through the DAC1 because it could drive the Senns to perfection. I am yet convinced that the Grados are far superior headphones, but it may be just my personal opinion---you would have to do the comparison for yourself.

Cheers,

Zoltan

[kent]

I had compared the Senns to the Grado RS1 on a SONY XB 930 CD player and the Grados sounded much more open, transparent and natural.  ...

Hi Zoltan. Thanks for the explanation. That does explain the discrepancy:  No CD player's headphone output that I know of will drive phones like the Sennheisers properly. They just won't sound good without a proper, high-output headphone amplifier.

Cheers,

Kent.

[kent]

An afterthought, and then I'll get off the headphone topic (I promise) -- You mentioned inadequate gain, but it's not just a gain (i.e., maximum volume) issue. It's more importantly an impedance/current issue. I imagine lots of frequency and phase (?) anomalies are introduced to the Senns by the impedance and current mismatch with the typical CD player (pre)amplification output stage.  

Enjoy the music...

Kent