DAC2 HGC - Test Report, Steve Holding, Newport Test Labs
DAC2 HGC - "Better Performance than DACs Ten Times its Price"
"Distortion was exceedingly low at all levels and frequencies ..."
"At a recorded level of - 20 dB, the only harmonic distortion component visible on the spectrogram is a single third harmonic at -125 dB (0.0000562%). This is exceptionally good performance, unequaled by any DAC I've ever seen."
"... but look at the noise floor ... it's more than 140 dB down, including at low frequencies. Superb performance."
"The Benchmark DAC2 HGC also revealed superb performance in the area of intermodulation distortion... the two test signals at 19 kHz and 20 kHz have only single side-bands at 18 kHz and 21 kHz, and these are down around -117 dB (0.0001413%). At 1 kHz, where every DAC I've ever seen has produced some unwanted output, the Benchmark DAC2 HGC has no output at all - the perfect result."
"Frequency response was extraordinarily flat - so much so that Newport Test Labs 'zoomed in' on it ... this makes it relatively easy to see that the Benchmark DAC2 HGC's frequency response extends from 20 Hz to 20 kHz +/- 0.01 dB ... almost unbelievably good."
"Channel separation is outstandingly good, being better than 130 dB across almost the entire audio band, diminishing only at 20 kHz where the lab recorded it at 110 dB ... again one of the best figures I've ever seen at this high frequency."
"Channel balance, too, was exceptionally good, with just a 0.014 dB difference between the left and right channels."
"Phase accuracy was within measurement error almost all the way across the audio band, with a slight 0.24 degree error at 20 kHz."
"It was good to see that the DAC2 HGC has a de-emphasis circuit which will activate for those CDs that require it, plus that the circuit is very accurate, being perfect at 1 kHz, and a stunningly good 0.078 dB at 16 kHz."
"Superb: I have used that word a number of times to describe the results returned by the Benchmark DAC2 HGC, and there is really no better word to describe its overall performance as well.
"I have analysed the test results of a half-a-dozen of the world's best DACs, most of which sell for more than ten times the price of the DAC2, and across almost all parameters tested the performance of the Benchmark DAC2 HGC equals or exceeds that of every single one of those DACs."
"This is digital audio engineering at its very best."
- Steve Holding, Newport Test Labs, Australian HiFi
Also in Reviews
Benchmark System Review - Ricky Dasler, Living Sound, New Zealand
"With over 40 years as an audiophile and more than half those years as a hi-fi retailer, I feel I’ve finally put together a stereo that ticks all my sonic boxes. Those being in order of priority, dynamics, scale, tonal accuracy, fatigue free resolution and soundstage."
"For the last 25 years I’ve been fortunate to have a dedicated listening room. I use acoustic treatments from Real Traps, Vicoustic and Primeacoustic."
"My Benchmark components consist of the DAC3 B (connected to a Naim NDS streamer), LA4 line amplifier and two AHB2 power amplifiers run in bridged mono mode. All cables are Benchmark too."
"The Benchmark gear in my system has brought what I have wanted in my list of sonic priorities as listed above and then some. They have delivered way beyond what I thought could be possible in my system in my room."
"I’m delighted and stunned daily as my vast music collection comes to life on a whole new level."
- Ricky Dasler, Living Sound, Nelson New Zealand.
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+