DAC3 Review and Test Report - Gary Galo, Audioxpress
DAC3 HGC - "Benchmark has Moved it to the Next Level"
"Benchmark has taken an already remarkable product and moved it to the next level."
ES9028PRO replaces the ES9018
"Benchmark Media Systems, Inc.’s DAC series of high-performance digital-to-analog converters (DACs) have earned the respect of audio enthusiasts and professional users alike for their state-of-the-art performance, including exceptional audio transparency and vanishingly-low levels of noise and distortion. Now Benchmark has made its DAC3 even better with the upgrade to ESS Technology’s new ES9028PRO DAC chip."
"The heart of Benchmark’s DAC2 is ESS Technology’s ES9018 digital-to-analog converter chip, widely recognized in the industry as one of the best DAC chips and, until now, the best in the view of Benchmark’s Vice President and Director of Engineering John Siau."
"ESS’s Sabre ES9018 DAC chip is now seven years old, and Benchmark began working with the new Sabre ES9028PRO after ESS announced its new chip last October. Measurements and listening tests convinced Benchmark of the new chip’s superiority."
"The ES9028PRO has a 64-pin footprint, and is pin-compatible with the ES9018, enabling Benchmark to drop it into the same PC board used in the DAC2. This makes the DAC3 a cost-effective upgrade. Siau notes that the DAC3 is like a DAC2 on steroids. In addition to the new ESS chip, the software and the analog gain structure are different from those in the DAC2."
The ES9028PRO offers four key areas of improvement over the ES9018
- Total harmonic distortion (THD) compensation
- Improved oversampling filters
- Improved phase-locked loop (PLL)
- Improved power supply distribution
"Benchmark considers the THD compensation to be the most significant improvement."
"The 32-bit digital processing in the ES9028PRO not only compensates for harmonic distortion at the chip’s own analog outputs, but it can also be adjusted to compensate for distortion in the post-DAC analog circuitry. The second and third harmonic distortion components can also be independently nulled."
THD Compensation
"This graph shows the DAC3’s second harmonic distortion with the ES9028PRO DAC chip’s THD compensation disabled (black) and enabled (red). The THD compensation yields a significant reduction in distortion in the critical midrange, where the ear is most sensitive."
Improved PLL
"ESS has improved the PLL in the ES9028PRO, giving the new chip faster lock times than the ES9018. Benchmark has used this to good advantage, changing the timing in the UltraLock2 system used in the DAC2 to create UltraLock3 for the DAC3s. Jitter attenuation in the two systems is virtually identical and exceeds the performance of the PLL in the ESS DAC chips."
"With the ES9028PRO, the DAC3 muting time is reduced to around 6 mS."
Listening
"Since last year, my reference DAC has been the DAC2 HGC, so making comparisons between the two was very easy. The DAC’s balanced outputs feed a pair of Benchmark AHB2 power amplifiers, one for each channel."
"The DAC3 HGC retains all the virtues of its predecessor, including its remarkable transparency and a seemingly non-existent noise floor. There’s also a sense of effortlessness and a complete lack of strain even on the most complex musical scores. But, the most obvious areas of improvement are in the reproduction of inner detail and soundstage delineation."
"The DAC3 HGC ensures Benchmark Media’s continued leadership in high-resolution digital audio, and I highly recommend the DAC3 HGC."
- Gary Galo, AudioXpress
Download the full review and bench report (PDF) →
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AHB2 Review - Constantine Soo, Dagogo
"The AHB2 bridgeable stereo amplifier ... was the topic of a recent discussion between American electrostatic panel speaker manufacturer Sound Lab’s president, Dr. Roger West, and me."
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"Dr. West described the AHB2 as a class AB design using “feed-forward distortion reduction [thus removing] any possibility of pushing the margin of safety of a standard feedback loop, used in most amplifiers, into an unstable oscillatory mode.”"
"He further shared with me that “this is of most concern on powerful musical transients. The distortion of the amplifier in the balanced mode is astonishingly low even at just below the clipping level of 380 watts.”"
"The prospect of the AHB2’s specified distortion level of 0.00015% or lower when at full volume is comical at first glance, but upon actual audition the impact of the achievement is very audible from medium-high listening levels and upward."
"It was unlike any other sub-$20,000 amplifier I have auditioned."
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- Constantine Soo, Dagogo
DAC3 Review - Jerry Del Colliano
"Benchmark is a stalwart brand in pro audio, but has carved out a very respectable niche in the audiophile world with their diminutive but powerful components."
"The audiophile world sometimes looks to the professional audio world for enlightenment, especially on the digital side of things, and Benchmark Media is one of the companies that we put high on a pedestal."
"They are hardcore digital engineers freezing their asses off in upstate New York as they come up with some pretty innovative ways to get your varied digital sources sounding as much like the master tape as possible. Thank you for your service, gentlemen."
"If you really want to hear what your music sounds like in today’s streaming-driven world, this might just be the DAC that you need to test out."
- Jerry Del Colliano, Future Audiophile
DAC3 & AHB2 - System Review, Trevor Butler, The-Ear.net
"I began with the DAC3 HGC and AHB2 powering the glorious Morel Avyra 633 three-way floorstanders."
"This pairing created a full-bodied sound which brought the recording to life."
"Notable from the off was the bass from the DAC3 HGC and AHB2."
"Wow! It was deep, tight and conveyed a real feeling that the electronics were in charge of the transducers."
"Involuntary foot-tapping confirmed the timing ability and the overall presentation was spot-on, the Benchmark electronics created a fluent sound across a vivid soundstage; performers evident both tonally and spatially in an easy-to-believe presentation that brought the performance close."
"The Benchmark’s ability to retrieve deep-down detail and display it so well across the soundstage, with accurate positioning and convincing layering, made for a glorious re-creation of the recordings."
"To my mind the AHB2 is an amplifier with no obvious characteristics of its own: the level of transparency is sublime."
"Above all, the improved transient response performance stood out in a presentation that was not only lively but incredibly fast and revealing. The attack and decay displayed was awesome and not something I expect at this price point."
"The Benchmark DAC3 HGC and AHB2 are cracking products, sonically superior to a lot that’s available and well priced."
"They are superbly designed and built to an extremely high standard."
- Trevor Butler, the-ear.net