All Benchmark System Question

@regg This thread is perfect and I have the same exact conundrum regarding my system.

Although I don't have the HPA-4 I do have the Benchmark Dac 3L and two AHB2's feeding my speakers (Raidho D1.1) and I too was considering adding the Audio Mirror Troubador to add some euphonic color/ warmth for those recordings where the instruments seems get in the way of the music and seems a little flat.....it's almost to precise if that makes sense. It's not necessarily a bad recording issue so much as just distracting or boring.

Anyway, you got advice from @yyzsantabarbara whose input I value (a lot) for all things Benchmark:) so now I'm going to have to check out the Gustard x26 pro too, so thank you both for that nugget. The truth is I have a hard time distinguishing between Dac's so I want a quality Dac on the opposite end of the spectrum of the Benchmark strengths to see where that gets me.

Sub's next.

Good luck

In my experience you can venture a bit too far in the too detailed / analytical direction and that all recordings will sound better with better less analytical component(s) more musical. I would start at the signal source, if that is harsh and cold then everything else takes on that cast. For instance a high quality music streamer is going to sound leagues better than a PC. If the source is excellent then move to the DAC. But the key is not to look at this as a 20% of the recording problem... this is a whole system problem. There are bad recordings... sure... but it is easy to have a system that makes all recording sound good,.. just some are not as good as others.

Mhdt might be another good choice for a different sounding DAC. 

So many great ideas, thanks! I am streaming from my iphone over wi-fi to a Node 2i so maybe that could be improved. I am so itching to hear Coda amp and preamp but I would have to sell the Benchmark stuff. If you haven’t heard Benchmark yet and are in a position to it’s really worth it. Yes, there is no harmonic distortion but if the recordings are good to very good the music, even out of my little P3SER’s is amazing. If you are into tubes don’t bother though.

Definitely start with the source then. See if you can borrow one of the less expensive Aurender Streamers. The difference will be jaw dropping. Also try Qobuz streaming service… free for a month. I started digital streaming about 15 years ago… incrementally upgrading all components piece by piece from an iPod on both my headphone system and main system. I held off the longest on getting a dedicated streamer… it’s only spitting out bits, right? Wrong… it is the source… everything that follows is completely dependent and contingent on it. It is the key source like in an analog system… the TT, then phono stage, then preamp… etc. they all matter, but a noisy poor start equals highly amplified carefully crafted poor sounding stuff. I recommending at least as much as any other component. My streamer is about 20% more than most of the other components in my system components and well worth it! I got there incrementally so know the intermediate steps.

My digital end is now very comparable to my high end analog end.