Benchmark Announces DAC2 HGC!

Thanks.

This one seems to be a great DAC for its price! It's on my list...

 

Umm. It kind of looks like you did.

I work in this industry, and talk to both hardware and software manufacturers on a regular basis. There's nothing "to get." No one in any great numbers listens to or purchases classical music and/or releases from obscure artists in ANY format, much less DSD downloads. Look at the RIAA numbers. SACD sales weren't even on the chart this year. That means less than 1%.

It's wonderful that you have some bizarre love affair with a format that will never get off the ground commercially, but if you were a student of history (which falls under the "getting it" column) you'd realize that obscure formats and most importantly format wars, i.e. 24/96 vs. 24/192 vs. DSD, SACD vs DVD-a, or our old favorite Beta vs. VHS don't work. They never have.

As far as getting "reasonably priced" DSD downloads from tapes, great luck on that business model. Because the majors are starting to think about releasing their own high res and deluxe edition files, it's getting harder for the reissue labels to get their hands on significant back catalog material as it is.

Do you have any idea what people like MoFi and Music Matters have to pay for insurance, just to get these titles? The last time I sat in on a Music Matters mastering session, the guy from EMI was there in the morning with the tapes and stayed till the end of the day, taking the tapes home.

Getting a decent mastering engineer and paying the royalties on any kind of release that would sell in any numbers that might suggest recouping the money spent is one thing. Convincing the majors to let the tapes out of the vault for a project like this is entirely another.

As I said in an earlier post, hardware is one thing. Getting a reasonable catalog of software to play back is another.

I think I understand the situation just fine. As important as music quality is to the .01% of the audiophile world, it's about distribution and compatibility to the 99.99% of the music buying public that could care less about any of this.

 

Historically, format wars have not worked because it meant a different physical format. But what we have now is not really a format war. Bit-is-bits, it doesn't matter so much what the format is. The most important thing is that you can back-up, refresh (to another physical medium), convert (to another representation), and listen to what those bits represent as you wish, on anything from a top-of-the-line dedicated home system to an iPod nano.

 

If you are going to convert one format to another, then why all the arguments for a specific format? If bits truly are bits, then why should we be all excited about DSD vs. 24/192?

And seriously, how many people have a system good enough to hear a dramatic difference?

Buying a $700 DAC because it does DSD is like putting a Lyra Atlas on a Rega P3 or a Technics SL-1200.

 

I don't feel it's necessary to listen to DSD while I'm jogging, so I might convert a track I have in DSD (or another hires format) to 48 kHz MP3 for my portable player.

But you bring up a valid point which is specifically important when considering the Benchmark DACs. I bet it does convert the DSD stream to 211 kHz 32 bit PCM as part of its ultralock and digital gain control, the same as for all PCM input streams. So the playback quality through the DAC2 probably depends on not only the DAC chips, but on the quality of that asynchronous conversion, as it did in the DAC1.

Personally, I probably have a slight bias toward 24/96 and 24/192 as opposed to DSD, but I'll take hires in the format in which it's offered to me.

 

Which goes back to the question of how much better does any of this really sound in the end? I'll still take a well mastered redbook CD over high res with lousy mastering. The more time I've spent agonizing over this in the past, the less I find myself caring about it. I'm trying to find more music, and more intriguing stuff than just buying the same titles over again. And I personally don't want to have to worry about another piece of hardware that may or may not be supported ten years from now.

 

Certainly not in the post you quoted.

 

The idea seems so novel and different from the old ways of doing things in the business that some people (see TONEPUB) can't even wrap their minds around it. Yet a community based audiophile music service could revolutionize hi-res music delivery. Crowdfunding hi-res releases, audiophiles would take the investment burden off small labels. Think about how much more diverse the hi-rez catalog would become as hi-rez content providers would no longer need to focus on "safe" titles (released for the umpteenth time), or obscure titles (but cheaply licensed) few people care about. It's a win-win-win business for all parties involved.

 

Now that you mention it - what do you think might be a good synergistic turntable/tonearm combo for using the Atlas?

 

Even if DSD does not take off, you still have a great PCM DAC and mid-level preamp so it's a pretty safe purchase from that standpoint.

 

First full review:

http://everythingaudionetwork.blogspot.com/2012/10/exclusive-first-review-benchmark-media.html

 

Sounds like a real winner!

 

Sounded really good in Denver.

 

For the final time, it's not that I can't "wrap my mind around this..." What you consistently fail to understand is that the music labels own the music. They are not going to hand over the master tapes to everyone that launches a kickstarter program to produce high res downloads.

Especially when things like HD Tracks, etc etc are starting to gain ground.

It's wonderful to have this little vision of a democratic music utopia where everyone just spends a little money to get DSD downloads, but the chance of this happening is so close to zero, your plan is laughable.

And how do you plan on doing this? Even if you could do this, you'd have to come up with the licensing fees UP FRONT and you'd have to pay a decent mastering engineer UP FRONT.

But the larger roadblock that you just fail to "wrap your mind around" is that the labels aren't going to release the tapes. This is why so little music outside the realm of obscure titles gets released in the first place.

There's no "investment burden" to WB, they own the fricking tapes and they want control. And when you figure that out, you'll finally grasp why every tom, dick and hiro doesn't have their own high res remaster label.

 

So far I have had excellent luck with the Atlas on the SME V and TriPlanar arms on the AVID Acutus Reference SP table. Joe Harley uses his on the VPI Classic 4 with excellent result, and a couple of the other guys at AudioQuest also have it on Classic 3's, so I'd say VPI is a safe bet. Jacob Heilbrunn, who writes for us and TAS has just put his on the Continuum, so there's another, albeit expensive combination and I'm pretty sure Michael Fremer is using his on the Graham Phantom. I've talked to a couple of people that are enjoying it on the SME20 and SME30, again with the SME V arm.

 

Thanks for your input. The turntable/arm combinations I'm considering are: The Basis Inspiration with Vector 4, The Kuzma Stabi XL with 4-point, and the SME 30 with V. Any further thoughts on these combos? I know this is off-topic, so maybe PM me if you care to respond.

 

Got mine via UPS this morning. It's got about 2 hours on it so far and sounds terrific. I'm using it as a headphone amp for my HD800s.

I'm getting a sightly flatter frequency response than I did on the Burson Audio. I would also classify the soundstage as more focused. Not a ton, but noticeable. The DAC2 is also completely noise free. I've cranked it all the way up and could not hear any hiss (not even on some Ultimate Ears IEM's that I have that are very easy to drive).

Listening now to the title track from Pink Floyd's A Saucerful Of Secrets (2011 version).

Chain is:

MacBook Pro
Reaper
USB
DAC2
HD800

I'll try it out with some other headphones later today.

I'm pretty sure I'll end up using this as my main pre-amp but have not hooked it into the main system yet. Just have it on the coffee table at the moment.

 

Thanks for the review Bobby. Please feel free to make further comments as you get further burn-in.

 

AES experience: very impressive

I had the wonderful opportunity to have an extended conversation with John Siau onsite yesterday at the AES, deep into his decisions on product architecture, design philosophy, parts selection, and of course resulting performance.

This is a well-engineered system. The headroom scheme as applied in all digital signal processing simply means that the effect of intersample overs is.... not there.

I'll make no comment about SQ beyond than to say that although in an exhibition environment, with various Senns available to me, these creaky 54-yr-old ears were quite impressed. Of course, all perception and selection is a completely individual matter of neurons / pathways / etc....

But it was sweet.


chuck

 

I'm really starting to enjoy mine. I'm already wondering how I ever got by without it.

I've been making needle drops all weekend and now I can monitor in real time without worrying about the DAC and ADC clocks going out of sync (DAC2 is totally buffered). I go: phono preamp -> ADC -> Toslink -> laptop -> reaper -> USB -> DAC2. Trying this in my last DAC worked for about a minute then the clocks would get out of sync and I would get mostly white noise.

One other cool benefit? I'm able to verify that my recent needle drops sound exactly like the live analog feed. I upgraded my ADC to a Black Mountain White Sparrow a while back but was still somewhat disappointed that my needle drops weren't quite as good as listening live. Now I can tell the problem was the old DAC. I can switch back and forth between a needle drop and the live analog record playing and hear zero difference.

I also took all of the other inputs for a jog over the weekend and all are working fine. Great HDCD output from my Oppo into the analog inputs of the Benchmark.

Saturday I listened using AKG 702 and Senn 650s (been using the 800s otherwise) and they both sound about the same on this DAC versus others I've used over the years. The 650s sound great as always on rock music. However, to really appreciate the quality of the new Benchmark, the 800s are necessary IMO.

Over all still having a great time and since my office is closed today due to the storm, I get to listen to music all day again.

If anyone is in the market for a new DAC in this price range, you owe it to yourself to give the new Benchmark a listen.

 

Thanks for the comments Bobby.

 

Well a facebook posting from Benchmark today says they are all sold out of the initial run. This is a huge hit.

 

I ordered one just in time. It was scheduled for delivery on Monday, but Sandy has delayed delivery. Looking forward to trying this DAC with my Olive 4HD music server, and as the head amp for my AKG's. I'll also check its performance against the Marantz SA-7S1 redbook performance, which is more dynamic, smooth and resolved sounding than the Olive 4HD. The head amp will replace my Stello.

 

We look forward to your review.

 

Received the Benchmark DAC-2 HGC (enjoy the photos) yesterday. Listened until late last night, and more this evening, so nothing but first impressions here. Still getting acquainted with the sound and all of its features.



This is the first time I've seen the motorized potentiometer, which I understand after some reading, was in the original DAC-1 PRE & HDR. I had a basic DAC-1 previously which did not have a remote. I've used something similar on an Ayre preamp, and understood that there was sonic benefit to keeping digital circuits away from the potentiometer. When using the remote to adjust the gain, the motorized potentiometer physically adjusts itself. When set to "home theater bypass" or unity gain, the motorized potentiometer adjusts itself to the physical position for that fixed gain level. Interesting... I just hope the potentiometer is reliable in the long term, which was the thought I had when playing with the Ayre. You adjust the gain of the XLR's using jumpers from 0 (unity/disabled), to -10, to -20. The RCA's can be set to HT Bypass using the remote control.

You'll also notice on the left side of this photo that the RCA adapters have something installed inline on each lead. I'm not sure if these are resistors to adjust impedance or if they're there to filter noise - like ferrite cores or something of the sort. If anyone knows what they are, I'd appreciate if they'd chime in.



I'll comment on the sound, knowing the sound could change over 100+ hours of break in. My immediate impression is that the DAC-2 is very musical with a nice full, detailed, smooth and relaxed presentation. It sounds wonderful. I'm experimenting with various configurations, without much effort into setup, and extended listening necessary for drawing real conclusions. Continuing with first impressions, the DAC-2 already seems more musical, fleshy and organic sounding than the Olive 4HD's native 192khz/24-bit Burr Brown PCM1792A. More bass and midrange, like what I hear with the SA7-S1.

The SA7-S1 and Olive 4HD used as transports feeding the DAC-2 through Belden coaxial digital cables sound identical, with no perceivable difference to my 49 year old ears. I'm glad, because I don't like it when transports and digital cables vary the sound. Maybe that's a testament to the effectiveness of the DAC-2's anti-jitter clock.

I compared the DAC-2 to the SA7-S1 playing Redbook, but the Marantz playing through XLR's and Audioquest Sky cables has higher gain level that cannot be matched by the DAC-2's variable gain. I'm currently using my DIY cables using 4N silver wire in cotton dielectric for RCA analog outputs (they're great sounding cables). I'll try identical RCA cables on both SA7-S1 and DAC-2 sometime later. First impressions are the Marantz is slightly more open, or sparkly in the treble at this point. It's subtle. I think they're in the same RBCD league, and break-in quite possibly will even things up, or the DAC-2 might exceed the Marantz on RBCD. My "Hot Tuna at MerleFest" 24/96 FLAC files sounds liquid playing through the DAC-2. This is a very nice DAC.