"The afternoon before the start of the show I ran into John Siau of Benchmark Media Systems. He says to me quietly, “make sure you stop in our room, we have a surprise!” "
"With curiosity suitably piqued, Co-Editor Jim Clements and I paid a visit on the Saturday to be greeted by two 87” tall white sticks in the middle of the room."
"These skinny posts that for all the world could pass as antennas were in fact a pair of line array speakers by a company called Laufer Teknik. Called The Note, each speaker is an array of 50 tiny full-range drivers. The arrays are crossed over to a pair of SVS subwoofers."
"The whole shebang was controlled by a DEQX preamp/processor. Next in the signal path was a pair of Benchmark DAC3 B DACs and a pair of AHB2 amplifiers running in mono. An Elephant memory player rounded out the gear."
"The intent of this setup is to create a 360 degree sense of sound with an image that didn’t change at any point in the room. Jim and I tested this out by walking the room and even standing between them. The results were pretty astonishing. A stable, enveloping stereo image that was devoid of any distortion whatsoever."
- Carlo Lo Raso, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
"Sound was extremely well-integrated and controlled, and the bass memorable."
"The Note received signal through the introductory version of the company's Liquid Cables. Each cable contains 27,000 wires. The company's introductory Elephant memory player joined Benchmark Media's AHB2 power amps, DAC3 B D/A processor, and interconnects."
"With the aid of a forthcoming DEQX HDP4 processor that's due in the fall, the system sounded super on a 16/44.1 file of the famed rendition of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, recorded by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra for Reference Recordings."
- Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile Magazine
"Laufer Teknik - The Note line array - The most immersive listening experience I had the entire show."
"There is no sweet spot because everywhere is the sweet spot. Even behind the speakers sounded incredible!"
"SVS Subs doing the low end work and Benchmark 380 watt class H monoblocked amps driving the arrays."
"I spent an extended amount of time in this room."
"The product under review is a stripped-down version of the DAC3 HGC."
"While it uses the same complement of ES9028PRO DAC chips as the flagship HGC and retains the USB port, the B offers a fixed output level and omits the headphone amplifier, balanced and unbalanced analog inputs, volume, mute, and polarity controls, and the remote control."
"I never auditioned the DAC3 HGC in my own system, so when I got an opportunity to borrow a sample of the DAC3 B, I eagerly agreed."
"I had been using MBL's network-connected N31 CD player/DAC ($18,680 with Roon Ready module) before installing the DAC3 B."
"The MBL offers an excellent sense of drive and low-frequency impact, but when I replaced it with the Benchmark, both these aspects of the music seemed enhanced."
"Whether it was an orchestral bass drum or a kickdrum, electric bass guitar or acoustic double bass, the MoFi speakers seemed to acquire more low-frequency weight without losing definition."
"Highly recommended for Class A+ in Stereophile's Recommended Components."
- John Atkinson
