Buy one component and save 10% on up to 2 cables. Buy 2 components and get 4 free cables. Free shipping on USA orders over $700. Low-cost shipping to Canada.
Buy one component and save 10% on up to 2 cables. Buy 2 components and get 4 free cables. Free shipping on USA orders over $700. Low-cost shipping to Canada.
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by Benchmark Media Systems September 01, 2015
"The drivers in Benchmark’s two-way system include a proprietary 6.7” (170 mm) woofer and a 1” (25 mm) soft-dome tweeter. The woofer is a long excursion design with a co-polymer cone, specifically designed for use in Benchmark’s acoustic suspension enclosure. The crossover boards for the SMS1 loudspeakers are hand assembled from premium quality components. Benchmark uses ClarityCap ESA-series polypropylene film capacitors and, to avoid paralleling capacitors to achieve desired values, Benchmark has exact values custom made for them."
"There are no iron core inductors in the SMS1. Air-core inductors are custom wound for Benchmark by Renco Electronics and are physically oriented to avoid magnetic interactions with each other and the driver voice coils. Power resistors are non-inductive, wire-wound types with low temperature coefficients. The crossover frequency is set at 3 kHz."
"When Benchmark moved to its current facility seven years ago, it built a dedicated, properly dimensioned listening room with acoustical treatment. The concrete floor in this commercial building is certainly an asset. The listening room showcases the SMS1 loudspeaker, fed by a DAC2 HGC DAC/Preamp and the AHB2 power amplifier, with an OPPO Digital BDP-80 digital player and a computer server providing high-resolution digital sources. Benchmark has three other pairs of loudspeakers set up in the listening room for comparison to the SMS1. The room is arranged in such a way that left and right speakers are the same distance apart for each pair. All the listeners need to do is rotate their heads when moving from
one pair to another."
"The other speakers in the room included the Adam Audio A7X, the Focal Solo 6Be, and the Klein + Hummel O300D."
"During my afternoon in the listening room, I played excerpts from several classical CDs and high-resolution PCM discs that I brought from my own collection. Siau then played a variety of high-resolution popular music recordings, all from files on the digital server. Several of the selections Siau chose featured solo vocals that the recording engineers placed in the center of the stereo image."
"I easily preferred the Benchmark SMS1 to the other three loudspeaker systems, for both the classical and the popular recordings. It provided the largest and most spacious soundstage, the most precise imaging, with solo vocals accurately placed in the center of the stereo image."
"The SMS1 also had the most neutral tonal balance, with excellent inner detail and resolution. The Adam A7X came in second, acquitting itself extremely well. But, imaging and depth perspective were not as precise as on the Benchmark SMS1. The Focal Solo 6Be had a curious upper midrange depression in its tonal balance, which I found most noticeable on the classical orchestral recordings and the solo vocals on the more popular selections. The Klein + Hummel O300D produced the least precise stereo image, with the location of solo vocals rather vague."
"All four systems produced impressive bass for their sizes, but I preferred the smoother, more natural character of Benchmark’s acoustic suspension design to the Adam and Focal vented designs. The Benchmark also had the best detail in the bass region."
"If you’re in the market for a small, accurate monitoring system, the SMS1 deserves serious consideration."
- Gary Galo, Audioxpress
by Benchmark Media Systems June 02, 2025
"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
by Benchmark Media Systems May 13, 2025
"Benchmark Media Systems’ no-nonsense approach to all things audio is rare today."
"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. "
"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+
by Benchmark Media Systems December 01, 2024
"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."