I find the Stereophile review of DAC 3 HGC, to put it gently, weird. The reviewer was comparing it to PS Audio DSD by having PS Audio DSD connected to the Benchmark analog in, and stated he heard no difference between the two DACs. Well no 💩!!!
I owned two Benchmark DACs, the DAC 1 years ago, and DAC 3 HGC fairly recently. I will say the DAC 3 HGC is slightly more musically engaging than the original DAC 1, but that’s not saying much. I sold it because it sounded like a studio monitoring tool, cool and dry, unable to convey emotion.
I haven’t heard the Tambaqui, but would love to. So I can’t speak to it but will take your word for it.
Perfect measurements don’t translate to good sound. I stumbled upon an ASR review of the Marantz SA-10 SACD player on YouTube and watched it just for 💩s and giggles. The ASR crowd in the comments was hailing Amir for saving them $7400 because the $99 Chinese Toping DAC (his reference) measured much better. Well guess which unit sounds better and not just marginally…