What do you replace a Benchmark with for 24/96?

Hmmm, I'm not sure if it's possible, but you might want to give Mr. Poon at Monarchy a call and run that by him. He may be able to swap the optical input for second coaxial input. If so, that should work well for you. It would certainly be worth a phone call or an e-mail to find out...

Plato, I will give him an e-mail but what other choices are out there for a DAC in $1,000 range used that will sound better than the Benchmark, is there even one to be found in this price range?

Try a non-os DAC like the Audio Mirror or Audio Sector, perhaps a used Audio Note. I think you'll find that these DACs exhibit a much more analog flavor than the Benchmark, which I have heard in my system. I have the Audio Mirror ($500), which I have since had modified by TRL ($550) and if you want to know how it sounds you can read my review on it here. Vlad could give you an extra coaxial input if you needed it.

Fishwater, Bel Canto DAC2 surpassed Benchmark in my system. All Zen cables as well. It sounded smoother, much smoother than the Benchmark and went deeper in bass. Fuller sound overall as well. Needs a good digital cable(don't be cheap there) and a good power cord(Audience powerChord worked wonders on this dac). Never sounded bright with my B&W N803 speakers. Check out my system for components.

I find it interesting that all the other hi-fi sites claim that this or that flavor of the month off shore DAC far surpasses the Benchmark but most of us in Agon don't seem to feel that way. I am curious about this new generation of low cost DAC's but don't know if they do in fact pass the test.

My other question is regarding the non oversample or upsample DAC's. If I am not mistaken it seems they will play the source as it was recorded without up-sampling. So, does that mean it will play a 24/48 recording as such & a 16/44.1 recording as it was recorded or will they truncate everything down to 16 bits? I ned a DAC that will play 24 bits as 24 bits & 16 bits as 16 bits.