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Benchmark dac - why such diverging opinions?

I'm puzzled.
Audiophile sites and magazines continue to rave about the benchmark dac (HDR, USB, pre,...). Perfect rendition, studio quality, unbeatable value,...

Yet criticism stacks up high on many blogs. Too harsh, not musical enough,...

Why such divergence? Does its popularity make it the one one loves to hate? Are magazines just biased in their reviews? Are audiophile bloggers not good judges of quality. Are those considering buying a dac at that price having sub-par components whose imperfections the benchmark dac amplifies, while those going higher end don't consider the dac adequate vs a berkeley or weiss? Where is the catch?

I ended up buying a w4s dac. I considered the benchmark yet never had the chance to audition it.
mizuno
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
hi kijanki:

thank you for your reasonable response. discussing differences in opinion can be entertaining and enlightening, as it can open the mind to different ways of thinking.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
System synergy is key (and personal preferance) - the whole chain..I have a Benchmark and it sounds great, a bit shy of the Berkeley, which says alot.
stevelee's avatar
stevelee
3 posts
 
I now have in my system the Benchmark dac 1 usb and the Minimax dac and in my experience, there's not that much difference. I've found that adding the empirical audio offramp 3 as being the most significant gear I've had in my mac based music server.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
Once had a friend try to show off his Benchmark DAC in my system. Considering how similar both our systems are, except the speakers, he was shocked at how different it sounded. We tried different settings. Nothing about the design should be finicky and one test shouldn't be conclusive but what else can I assume?
james63
534 posts
 
"Maybe it's an issue of "you can't handle the truth!"

I have to agree with the earlier post. I have had the DAC1-HDR in my system for over a year now and still like it's clean dynamic sound.
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