I s Benchmark the "Benchmark"

I just bought a Benchmark A/D converter after having a very long conversation with a tech at Benchmark. I had previously bought a Tascam DA-3000 which has a very poor sounding analog front end. I plan to use the Benchmark to do the A/D conversion, and feed the digital to the Tascam. Then let the Tascam generate the digital WAV files from the 24 bit/96K digital stream from the Benchmark.

The benchmark does not use a discrete component analog front end like the Ayre, but they do use some of the best sounding opamps in use currently. AD797s (John Curl's reportedly favorite opamp) and LME49860. They also use a minimum of coupling caps that are triple bypassed with NPO ceramics.

I will be testing this setup in the next few days and report back. I was impressed by the Benchmark tech as he really new nitty gritty details of their product, and emphasized they do a lot of listening in the design process (they are not just "pro-sumer" like Tascam, Berringer, and other companies).

Emotiva DAC sounds much better than Benchmark and far cheaper. Both got trial period so be your own judge,

Coli,

Please elaborate what you hear as different or better between the two.

Thanks.

Benchmark sounds unnaturally thin and just unnatural. Emotiva just sounds perfect, every day I am astonished by how good my system sounds. 

You really need to try both in your own system, interactions between components can be nasty especially if you are on a audiophile setup so there is no telling which is better for your system.

I have a DAC1 USB. I use the digital optical. I like it alot. But I purchased a Schiit Bifrost Uber which was 1/2 the price some 10 year later and I like it as much.