DAC/Pre's Digital attenuation vs. analog

Not sure what the Benchmark unit costs, from who I have talked to, the W4S DAC-2 beats any of the Benchmark units. I really liked my DAC-2... was connected XLR direct into a BAT VK-55, sounded great. One small box does so much. They can price it that way b/c they do not sell at dealers. And like I mentioned... the resale is great if you decide to try something else. I also tried their big class D mono amps - not the same experience AT ALL. I guess I just prefer the tube sound, but I did not like any of those new amps with the B&O ICE modules... and I tried several.

I was using the DAC-2 off a netbook PC with mainly FLAC and WAX at 24/96 and some 24/192.

I got a great deal on a demo LINN Akurate DS (latest version) and it was quite an upgrade, so I sold my W4S unit.

Yes, just personal preference (although I have not personally owned the Benchmark, I am going off what others have said). I think the DAC-2 is a really great piece of gear. And if it were me, and I was only doing digital files, I would go without a preamp. If you have other sources (CD player, LP), then I suppose you would have to have at least a phono preamp. You could hook a CD player into the DAC-2 but this would make no sense... it would never sound as good as a hi-res file.

hi steve:

the problem is the digital volume control. when you set it to max, the analog vol control on the preamp is providing less gain.

my experience, as stated, is that is preferable to minimize the contribution of "digital" gain in favor of analog gain.

Steve, that sounds like a reasonable approach. One 3 feet trip to the audio rack to set volume on the DAC for each listening session is doable. I will wait for the offramp 5 I ordered to arrive first, but my next project may well be a shootout of your DAC against the Perfectwave MKII.

Mr tennis - The "analog" volume control on the DAC that I am referring to is not analog at all. It does not suffer from the gain issues. This allows the digital volume to be at or close to max, which is optimum.

Volume control using analog "gain" adjustment is one of my least favorite methods. Best to avoid. My own modded ML preamp is a dust-gathering boat anchor now.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio