SMS1 Review - Paul Rigby, The Audiophile Man
SMS1 - "Airy Mids, Spacious Soundstage"
"I was impressed by the broad nature of the SMS1 soundstage. Clarinets and strings had a beautifully resonant aspect, letting the ear know that all of these instruments had a specific character. Another feature of the soundstage was the piano’s ability to make itself heard. Normally, this element of the song has the piano running along the base of the soundstage, largely unheard except for a few scattered notes. The Benchmarks were able to separate the piano from its surrounding orchestral instruments which provided a delightful keyboard rendition while delicate percussion effects via treble-infused cymbals, again normally masked in the mix, were also able to be picked out."
"Guitars were suitably aggressive while the bass never bled into the midrange area. Hence, any risk of muddying the bass was never an issue. While the higher pitched and louder edges of the synths did add a touch of the midrange bloom, this was relatively minor and largely offset by the magnificent bass response which was deep, punchy, confident, driving and weighty."
"The airy nature of the midrange from the Benchmarks really came into their own here with the twangy guitar, adding tension and portent, retaining a welcome suite of reverb tails while the secondary percussion from the bongos and wood blocks also added to this spacious feeling. The bass-ridden piano keys emanated from a dark and mysterious place and retained the power from the Benchmark’s massy lower frequencies while the screaming string effects were drenched in emotion."
"At the sharp end is a 170mm custom-made polymer woofer and a 25mm soft dome tweeter while, at the rear, is an unusual rear-mounted toggle switch to choose between single and bi-amp modes. Related to that, instead of two pairs of binding posts, the company offers a SpeakON 4-pole connector for bi-amping (which is a lot neater than the usual system)."
"The space and air around the midrange helps these speakers to tackle even the most complex of arrangements while the allied meaty bass means that they will be a good performer within any genre of music."
- Paul Rigby, The Audiophile Man - audiophileman.com
Also in Reviews
Benchmark Converters at Abbey Road - Geoff Pesche
"What are the Latest Advancements in Mastering?"
"Geoff Pesche weighs in on how the mastering team at Abbey Road Studios achieve first-class results." - Mix with the Masters
"The biggest sonic improvement in mastering in the last 5 or 6 years is D/A and A/D converters and that's very very important - what you have at the front and the back of the chain."
"We use fairly new Benchmark converters front and back."
"Abbey Road like a uniformity between the rooms so all of the rooms have the same A/D and D/A conversion."
- Geoff Pesche, Mastering Engineer, Abbey Road Studios
DAC3 Review - Alan Sircom, hi-fi+
"A Damn Good, No-Frills Digital Converter"
"Benchmark Media Systems’ no-nonsense approach to all things audio is rare today."
"Uniformly Good"
"This is a DAC that’s uniformly good at everything. It resolves well, has good imaging properties."
"It makes a balanced, honest sound that allows you to sit and listen to music for hours. That is what makes Benchmark’s products consistently popular with audio engineers. You don’t want ‘bright’ if you sit at a mixing desk 10 hours a day. "
"Leave No Trace"
"It also has the latest version of Benchmark’s jitter attenuation system (UltraLock3) and doubles down on the digital demon with its multi-mode asynchronous USB system."
"Benchmark also uses the distortion compensation facilities built into the ESS chip to reduce second and third order distortion."
"The net result is a DAC that delivers lower distortion, lower noise, less passband ripple, faster signal switching and locking onto signals and a more linear frequency response."
"The Benchmark Media Systems DAC3 B is very much in the ‘leave no trace’ school of good audio."
- Alan Sircom, hi-fi+
DAC3 - Award Nominee - Best Digital Audiophile Product of 2024 (Cost No Object)
2024 Nominees
- Benchmark Media DAC3 B DAC, $1895
- Bricasti M3 DAC, $6000
- Bricasti M19 CD-SACD Player, $10,000
- T+A DAC 200, $7620
- Weiss Engineering Helios DAC, $21,995
"There was some debate about whether anybody can hear the differences above a good Chi-Fi DAC like the Topping D90. Unless you are missing most of your high-frequency hearing, you can hear where a high-end DAC makes a difference."
The Bricasti M3 is a great example of that performance in a $6,000 DAC."
"The Benchmark DAC3 B is an audiophile DAC, with pro audio roots, that punches way above its weight."
