Cambridge 840c or Pioneer PD-65/Benchmark DAC 1

I use the 840c and its external dac with my sonos system. I have been very pleased with the overall sound. I have changed everything in my system in the past year except the 840c and do not anticpate replacing. It also can be used with a DVD player t.v. etc.. as well. letting you take a "16-bit/44.1kHz CD data to 24-bit/384kHz data, through the use of a 32-bit Analog Devices Black Fin DSP (digital signal processor). This in turn feeds two 24-bit/384kHz DACs from the same company in dual differential formation."

Beerad - 384kHz is really impressive but DACs have the lowest harmonic distortion at about 100kHz - therefore Benchmark has 192kHz DAC driven only at 110kHz for lower THD.

They must have made a major flaw in design. It still sounds really good to my ears.

Kijanki

It seems that the cheap DVD players are quite reliable.
I have read the cheap Sony DVD players are transports w/ good detail.

The Oppo's are very robust and their first and long discontinued 971 still performs. I have the discontinued 970 which had better audio at the time, before I bought a DAC.

If you watch movies as well the new 980 has excellent DVD picture (1080p), plus it is a universal player at $160. My experience is that Oppo's are very durable, and I have never heard of one failing.

More and more the high end mags are recommending cheap DVD players w/ near state of the art DACs (and for less than a Cambridge 840).

Cambridge has a link to a paper that discusses the merits of upsampling to 384kHz and why they choose to go that route rather than 192kHz.
http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/assets/documents/840Cwhitepaperwebedit.pdf I have heard great things about your Benchmark and am sure it provides a very nice sound. Hopefully, I can demo one in the future to hear what all the great reviews are talking about. Enjoy your system.