DAC-Preamp having these specifications?

@celander

The DAC 3 is more advanced than the HDR-VC of the DAC 1. The DAC 3 has 32 bit DSP volume control also in addition to passive attenuators and active analog gain circuit. So for best results you should feed the DAC 3 the full bit perfect signal (no software volume control). The rule of thumb is keep volume as high (without clipping) as you can to maintain headroom and highest SNR. 

@shadorne yes, I see that. Rory of Benchmark sent a bunch of links of application notes to me. Looks like they’ve also improved the master clock and how jitter is controlled in the DAC of the DAC3 unit.

@celander

Yes they have addressed fully the common PLL issue of slave hunting master. In some cases the way that a slave adjusts to a master can actually produce worse jitter - they have fully addressed this. They reduced the clock cycle adjustment rate to below 1Hz which should be completely inaudible (this is the maximum frequency tone you could hear if the slave was in continual adjustment to try to match the master - of course 1 Hz isn’t audible). Mathematically their technique is both solid technically and elegantly simple and runs at 250 GHz with clock adjustments of 4 picosecond.

@celander ... or anyone
Here is your Bel Canto 3.7 DAC with PSU within budget of $2500.

IMO, it is pretty risk- free.
Not just bc of the Exc SQ, but b/c if for some insane reason you don’t like it, you can sell it for the same price you paid, or even make a couple hundred dollars with a resell.
https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis93eaa-bel-canto-design-dac-3-7-w-vbs1-mint-obm-auth-bc-dlr-50-d...

This is is Mint unit that a AV dealer is just trying to offload at less than 1/2 price of the MSRP 

Re: the Benchmark DACs, I almost bought one 5 years ago. The jitter and specs looked great, but when I actually listed to the Benchmanrk, I found it to be dry and sterile sounding. And no no offense to the Benchmark lovers, just IME. 

John Strongzer of Bel Canto has been designing DACs and Class D for over 20 years. 
Again, Bel Canto advertises very little, they don’t spend much of their budget money on advertising (like Benchmark), so that means more R and D $  is going directly into the product. 
Best