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Upgrade from Benchmark Dac?

The Benchmark USB DAC is the first piece of digital gear that I've bought and been happy with. I still prefer analog but listening to 50,000+ wav files randomly is pretty sweet.

I've had an Audio Research DAC 3 as well as a CD1 which I thought sounded like crap. I have ARC electronics and love them but their digital offerings left me cold. On the value for money scale the Benchmark gets my highest rating although my local hifi emporiums claim the PS Audio or Bryston is better.

Anything out there in the digital world that will blow me away like the Benchmark? I don't want to spend ten times the dough to get a debatable 10% more "sound".
ntscdan
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
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!
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,964 posts
 
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.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
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.
panhead2
35 posts
 
I have to agree that tweaking the benchmark makes a big difference. I have changed the usb cord, vibration/support, pc (blacksands) and dont forget the fuse. I think it sounds better straight from the wall than out of my lowly APC unit.

Certainly well worth the effort if you already own it. What will I upgrade to? That's a $50 question but I am eagerly awaiting the Ayre dac.

Cheers
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