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
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."
