Upgrade from Benchmark Dac?

Thanks for the suggestions!

I take clean power and proper cables for granted. I'm using the Benchmark in USB mode with balanced Cardas Hexlink 5C cables for the output...Cardas Quadlink power cord plugged into an Inouye conditioner which is plugged into a dedicated 20 amp circuit.

I never thought about it but I can imagine that power and cables would probably have a much greater impact on digital rather than on analog gear.

I am surprised there aren't more enthusiastic posts from owners of mega buck DACs.

"I owned the benchmark and went to the Marantz 8260, and gave up a bit more top end air and got more body and weight in the bass."

Changing tubes in the mhdt Paradisea can produce similar effects easily for minimal cost.

I never thought about it but I can imagine that power and cables would probably have a much greater impact on digital rather than on analog gear.

Clean power does seem to affect digital - well it has in my experience. I suspect switched mode power supplies can be a problem. However, before spending $3000, I'd suggest you experiment with say $100 monster power bar filter first and see if it makes an audible difference. FWIW the power supply in the DAC1 is linear (not switched mode like a DVD player) and it runs quite hot - like a hot mug of coffee to the touch. That and the signficant weight of the little box suggests that it probably has a decent power supply to begin with.

Another avenue to check is to ask a question on Head-Fi org to Elias Gwinn (Benchmark engineer). I expect he will tell you that the DAC1 is designed to work in studios with dirty power and should not need conditioning in all but very extreme cases.

Good Luck!

I use an inexpensive Monster Power bar filter as Shadorne described on my system. It is the only special power conditioning solution in play and seems to do the job quite well in my case. All digital sources and pre-amp are powered from it (not the power amp). The digital sound is clean, tight, detailed and focused. Not sure what more I would gain with anything else, though it would be interesting to experiment.

4est, this in some haste: associated gear identical for all trials. Transport : Sonic Frontiers, AC cord : Ensemble Powerflux, digital IC : Atlas Opus, analog IC : Audience Au24, pre/power : GamuT, speakers : Gradient Revolution.

Material was world jazz ( Hadouk Trio-Live à FiP ), classical ( Beethoven 6th-Haitink LSO, Boccherini quintet-Europa Galante, an aria I've forgotten the name of ) and rock ( the XRCD Brothers in Arms ).

The great advantage was to the Stellavox in the upper mids and highs. More air, less hash/starch/chalkiness. The big thing for me was cymbals sounding like metal. Clarity also was better across the entire range.