Benchmark DAC-1, Lavry DA10, Altmann Attraction

I have had the Benchmark DAC for a while now and here are my experiences.
I'm feeding it directly into a power amp, using the built in analogue volume. I never felt it needs a preamp unless you have more than one source.

I observed it to have very clear and non-fatiging highs because of the lack of distortion and harshness.
I find the bass dryish and therefore very revealing of what's going on in the lower frequencies, without sounding muffled or dark.
I found the midrange just about right, though a little laid back.

Overall it was a little cool sounding but not thin, and I felt that I was a bit removed from the music. That is until I played around with various powercords.
I found that adding a robust sounding power cord transformed this beautiful sounding DAC into a full bodied, robust, and warm sounding unit. I was shocked as this made a bigger differance than interconnects made.

Incidentally the better more detailed interconnects didn't make the DAC sound thin, but just made you know what this DAC is capable of. The powercord on the other hand unchoked the power and let it really sound big and powerful, w/o any loss of detail or soundstage.

These are my experiences so YMMV.

So what powercord worked best for you?

I've tried very few so I have limited experience,. A basic 14 ga PC made an improvement, and my $200 Dynamic Design prototype made a huge diference. I therefore deducted that trying PS Audio's with good bass, or one of the robut sounding PCs available would do what my DD PC did for me.

Couldnt agree more with the prior post about power cords and how they benefit the benchmark dac1. I went from a taipan helix to a python helix. Incredible the impact both cords made.

I absolutely agree with the above two posters on the benchmark and power cords. I also use Python helix Vx and the upgrade was enormous. Also use Tara Labs RSC Air One IC's and that, with the PC (into Hydra 8) made it sound very, very nice.