DAC2 HGC Review - Rob Stewart, JustMastering.com
DAC2 HGC - "Sound Quality - Hey... Wow!"
"The biggest part of my role as a mastering engineer is listening. I spend a great deal of time listening to my clients' mixes, offering my observations and recommendations before moving to the final mastering stage."
"I have built my mastering room (details, here) to be very quiet because that is necessary for audio mastering purposes."
"I can tell you that from the first 3 seconds in, I found that the difference in detail that I was hearing via the Benchmark DAC2 vs my old DAC1 was much more dramatic than I expected. You may have read several other reviews for the DAC1 series and DAC2 series that discuss things like "added separation of instruments", added depth, or a jaw-dropping sense of three-dimensionality. I will confess that when I read such things in other reviews, I was dismissing them as mere wishful thinking. I am happy to report that they are in fact true in my experience with the DAC2."
"I have read some reviewers describe benchmark products as "clinical" or "sterile". I have no experience with the DAC1 series, but I can tell you that the DAC2 series has no "personality" per se, and I mean that in the best possible way; it is not "sterile", or clinical, nor is it euphonic. I would use words such as "clean", "accurate", "detailed", "faithful", "linear" and "correct" to describe the sound of the Benchmark Media DAC2 HGC. It is exactly what I would expect of a high grade DAC. It neither adds or removes anything to or from the sound, nor should it."
"A high grade, high resolution, highly neutral DAC is an essential foundation point for any music system. If you are a serious music lover (you do not have to be a professional, or call yourself an audiophile), who wants to get the very most out of your playback system, I think you owe it to yourself to check out the Benchmark Media Systems DAC2 HGC."
"If you are interested in assembling an audio system to playback high resolution audio, the DAC2 is an essential starting point. You will need the exceptionally low noise, high linearity and exceptional clarity that this DAC has to offer before you can enjoy everything that high resolution digital audio has to offer."
- Rob Stewart, JustMastering.com
Also in Reviews
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."
LA4 Review - Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com
"Benchmark Media Systems made its reputation in both pro audio and audiophile circles by designing gear with extraordinarily low noise and distortion, and selling it at reasonable prices."
"What Makes the Benchmark LA4 Preamp So Special?"
"A high-quality volume control is much of what makes a superior preamp shine, and the Benchmark’s volume control is outstanding. The Benchmark LA4 uses a bank of precision resistors switched by gold-contact relays to set volume in 256 steps of 0.5 decibels each."
"If accurate reproduction is your wish, you won’t find a preamp with meaningfully better objective performance than the Benchmark LA4, especially one made in the United States at anything near the LA4’s price."
"Very few preamps at any price reach the LA4’s level of objective performance."
"On the subjective end of things, the Benchmark LA4 preamp puts the lie to the old audiophile myth that neutrality means clinical, cold, or sterile sound. Instead, here neutrality means musical, involving sound, with precise, stable imaging, a sense of space (if one is on the recording), and exceptionally truthful timbres."
- Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com
AHB2 Review - Mike Prager, Future Audiophile
"For years, the audio world acknowledged one main contender (at least at sub-five-figure pricing) for the quietest, cleanest, most neutral power amplifier around. That was the Benchmark AHB2, whose specifications are still, for all practical purposes, unsurpassed, even by today’s excellent Class-D amps."
"10 years after its release, the Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 stereo power amp is still a standard-bearer in clean, neutral sound in the audiophile world."
"I greatly enjoyed having a pair of AHB2s in my system – their purity, neutrality, and seemingly unlimited power provided a clear window on the music and a lot of joy."
"I especially appreciated the AHB2’s smooth, well-integrated treble, free of splashiness or grain, and its natural reproduction of the human voice."
- Mike Prager, Future Audiophile