Benchmark Media Systems. Right or wrong

IMHO, while cables make a small difference, I like the fact that as you move up the line (Audioquest) the sounds gets better in all ways and not just good in some ways / bad in others.

Upgrades in speakers and electronics often have trade offs and a benefit in one area has some bad "side-effects" in others. Same as side-effects when taking pills.

I have learned a lot from dealers. As one told me long ago, cables, etc. should be a smaller percentage such as 10% of what you paid for speakers. if your speakers are 100K maybe 5k on Audioquest dragon makes sense.

@yyzsantabarbara My Benchmark DAC3B is definitely too hot on the top end. I do not use it on 2-channel but on my RAAL VM-1a tube headphone amp running in Pentode mode I love the DAC3B.

I came to a similar conclusion. Had hoped to like it more on my 2ch system. Tried that dac with multiple sets of Cardas, Audioquest, Aperture, and others. No dice in my particular system. The description above by @audphile1 about his being "cool, dry, matter of fact rendition" is a great way of describing what I heard with DAC3B. Engineers there were NOT interested in hearing my feedback, in order to help suggest a different sound result or maybe trying for a different version of itself. 

  I was looking for a different type of sound and presentation. Paid off to keep trying, and the next three dacs went in a better direction for me. 

I had the LA4 preamp for a brief while. At first I liked the dynamics it produced, but it was fatiguing after a while. Many people call it transparent,  but it did have a sound of it's own. Like a sheen layered over the music. Hard to describe, but in the long run, not very pleasant.

In many instances a very neutral piece of equipment will expose deficiencies in a system. Someone with a system that is too "hot" will prefer a DAC that is rolled off.

A neutral system (flat frequency response curve) will sound too hot (sibilant) at higher volumes. This is why Loudness Compensation was so popular.

Most of the audible problems with stereos are issues of amplitude or frequency response. It only takes 0.5 dBFS at any given frequency between 100 Hz and 10 kHz to make an audible difference in sound quality. I think what we tend to do is compound errors to achieve a curve we like. You can accomplish the same thing with digital EQ and if you measure your system after you have achieved the sound you like you will be able to adjust your system to any component. This is called a target curve.   

or maybe many listeners just don’t like Benchmark gear...and yes, we do know how to listen and how to set up systems..