How good is Benchmark DAC1 comparing to......

That is part of it but there is some more.

I can certainly understand all the interest. But, I have to say that I didn't discover all this and so I really can't comment further -- the other party will have to do so. I don't know all the facts here and I have nothing more to add so please don't address any more questions to me on this subject. Sorry.

Hopefully all will be divulged soon.

To put it frankly, I think the interest is generated from the mystery that appears to have been orchestrated about this, and that it is beginning to smell a bit wiffy. If there is something to say, why not say it?

Redkiwi,

There is no great commercial motive here.
We are putting the finishing touches on something that improves further the benefits of the reconfig., but anyone can enjoy the sonic improvements with a small purchase from an electronics store.
The change doesn't turn the DAC-1 into the best dac ever
-or anything ridiculous like that- but it is a 'significant!' improvment to an already noteworthy d/a. The change does make it more alive, smooth, dynamic, dimensional, and makes the mid more a bit more palpable.

I hadn't intended to make much of a stir but before I let-on the change that anyone can do. I wanted to encourage those who ownwed a Benchmarks.

So I'll let-on soon. Also, anyone using a passive pre with their Benchmark or using the volume control is in for a real treat!

Thanks for being patience.

Thanks for that. It makes a bit more sense now. Suitably configured, I don't find the Benchmark lacks liveliness, and it is already pretty smooth, but do agree that midrange palpability would be welcome, and more firmness to dynamics from the lower mids down would be very valuable. Depending how effective the improvements are that would leave its only flaw (to my ears and in my two systems) as low level inner detail/nuance. Although one hastens to add that I refer to a flaw only in the context of tough and more expensive competition.

For what it is worth, in playing around with configurations I found one seemingly paradoxical outcome. I tended to prefer the interior gain set to -30dB, and highish output calibration, whereas I had expected to find the 0dB gain and low output calibration to sound better. However I did not spend a lot of time with these permutations because I was really just trying to see if I could get it to outperform my Lavry, as opposed to spend lots of time optimising the Benchmark.

These days I just use the Benchmark as part of a portable high end system comprised of laptop, Wavelength, Benchmark, Sennheiser. Great travel to with.

Does this mean that it wont benefit those of us using a preamp?