Benchmark Media Systems. Right or wrong

Benchmark equipment is not sterile, it is neutral, very nicely made and fairly priced. After that you can take it anywhere. Want an analog glow? Add a turntable with a tube phono stage. The difference with good electronics pales in comparison to the difference in speakers. 

On another note, having spoken with them, Benchmark is heavily into digital signal processing. They are currently using a MiniDSP SHD Studio with two of their own DACs and find the combination excellent. This is a Dirac Live platform which I have tested and it is a very effective and simple to use system. It is not as flexible as higher resolution designs, but it is amazingly cost effective. The only problem with the MiniDSP SHD is the DACs are not audiophile quality. Benchmark solved that problem by choosing the Studio version and using their own DACs. 

I owned 2 Benchmark DACs. DAC 1 years ago and recently DAC 3 HGC. To me the benchmark sound is cool, dry, a more a matter of fact type sonic rendition of recorded music . I do agree though that the product is nicely built, rich in features and measures well. It’s priced accordingly. Just not my cup of tea. I was able to warm the DAC 3 sound with a good USB and power cables though but it didn’t do it for me. If you like it, good for you!

One other thing I will mention. When I called benchmark I spoke to a person pretty much right away. Their customer service is good. But whoever that was, I don’t remember now, recommended that I ditch my Pass Labs preamp and run the DAC 3 HGC direct to amp. I had already tried it by then and didn’t like the results. The claim was that my Pass preamp is noisy and degrades the sound quality. DAC 3 direct into amp resulted in flat, dry and forward presentation. It was significantly worse than having a preamp in the chain.
The volume control on DAC is definitely a useful feature if you’re in between preamps. But it’s not a replacement so no thanks….I like my preamp. 

I’m a big fan of Benchmark. Great products at reasonable prices. I do however have a pair of their speaker cables here. Compared to my Cardas Clear Cygnus speaker cables, they sound dull and lifeless. So I think they should be careful about making blanket statements - and in a somewhat snide manner nonetheless.  I’d gladly pay the premium for the Cardas cables over theirs.  It is not a subtle difference and worth every penny.

@jimmy2615 Speaker cables have to be matched to purpose. There are significant design issues particularly with low impedance speakers and subwoofers. If you use a bad cable for the job like using 24 gauge zip cord to drive subwoofers you will have a pretty poor result. I am sure Benchmark would readily agree. What they would say is there are many excellent affordable cables for any purpose and there is no need to buy designer cables at ridiculous prices. The very best wire is available to all of use and we can make our own cables for pennies on the dollar. Read up on cable design. Once you understand it you can design your own. You can even get the casing to make your cables look fancy. I'm old school. To me cables are something you do not want to see. They should be hidden. Another important issue is cables should always be as short as possible which you can not do with store bought cables. When you make your own you can cut them to exact size. 

My Benchmark DAC3B is definitely too hot on the top end. I do not use it on 2-channel but on my RAAL VM-1a tube headphone amp running in Pentode mode I love the DAC3B.

Their speaker cables running off the AHB2 are just OK. They have some issues. I replaced them with the Audience FrontRow and massive improvement. The interconnects are not that much of an issue.