Benckmark DAC1 Review....

When I bought my seperate Dac I really was skeptical in the beginning. I knew it would really improve my DVD player, but the way it made my Nak sound was incredible, mainly because the Nak was an expensive unit with much of the same parts the Adcom had. It's not always the parts, it's how they are put together. It was jaw dropping, really.....

The best analogy I cam come up with is someone who needs glasses. You can see pretty good w/o them but when you put the glasses on everything becomes vivid, crisp, sharp, etc.... and sometimes you see things you don't want to see so well!!!

It's the same with the DAC.. the bass tightened up and was much more extended and controlled. The soundstage is huge, both vertically and horizontally. The depth is fu**ing amazing. I can place intruments anywhere in the soundstage. I can tell the exact position of the snare and the hi-hat and where they are in relation to each other and each tom, etc. The natural decay of instruments can now be heard, so many little nuances I missed before. I literally turn off the lights and the speakers disappear. Background singers are actaully placed in the background, and if to the left of the main singer, then that's where you hear them. I've heard/sold SDA's in the past and this is a similar experience, but the imaging and staging is absolutely remarkable. When I first got it I actually had to take a day off work to stay home and listen. I did this over a 3-day weekend and listened almost 12 hours a day. I was simply blown away. It has such an open, airy sound. It is really amazing it could make such a difference. Imagine someone drapping a double folded sheet over your speakers, and then after years and years of listening to it that way have someone remove the sheet, that's kind of what it's like. When I leave the room and am in another part of the house I swear the performer is live in the other room. It's amazing

On the down side, and for some this may be a formidable draw back, poor source equipment and poor source recordings are only made worse. Marginally recorded music is going to sound shrill, compressed, unappealing using an outboard DAC. I have RTA-11t's and that annoying resonance/spike at 12-13KHZ has become much more annoying on certain musical passages. Most of the crappy, compressed top 40 rock cds are going to give you listener fatigue because the DAC is revealing all the deffeciencies of the source material. Forget MP3's, they sound horrible through the DAC, not musical at all. But, when you do get a good recording, it really makes a night and day difference and it becomes much more enjoyable. I highy recommend an outboard DAC if you have better than mediocre equipment, it will change the way you listen to music.

I listen to a lot of female vocal-Jewel, Sarah Mac, Sarah Brightman, Holly Cole, Lisa Loeb, Norah Jones etc. and lot's of acoustic music and it sounds phenomenal. However, Vanessa Carlton, Joss Stone, Michelle Branch although acceptable are not mastered very well and it shows. Just to name a few off the top of my head.

Heiney9

Originally posted by danger boy
this all sounds like we could be heading towards a DAC shoot out. down the road.

That would actually be kinda fun...... like the "iron chef" how about the "iron DAC":D

I'm happy for Steve because he's experiencing the euphoria I did and still do. I could never go back to my stand alone cd player. Sometimes just so I don't thimk I'm crazy I take the DAC out of the system and everything just falls flat. It's been quite an eye opening experience. Hell, if you get a 30 day return, eveyone should give a DAC a try. The Benchmark is among the best.

Heiney9