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 October 11, 2017
"The Benchmark DAC3 offers extremely low levels of harmonic distortion from all its outputs. Intermodulation distortion was similarly vanishingly low."
"The Benchmark DAC3 featured extraordinarily low levels of analog noise at its outputs."
"No power-supply–related spuriae can be seen, and the random noise floor lies below –160 dBFS!"
"With its very low noise floor and correspondingly very high resolution, the DAC3’s reproduction of an undithered 16-bit tone at exactly -90.31 dBFS was perfect."
"When the DAC3 decoded dithered 16-bit and 24-bit data representing a 1 kHz tone at -60 dBFS, the increase in bit depth dropped the noise floor by more than 30 dB, indicating that the Benchmark’s resolution is at least 21 bits."
"This as good as a DAC can currently get!"
"Channel separation via the digital inputs was superb, at 124dB in both directions at 1kHz, and was still almost 110dB at 20kHz."
"The analog inputs offered a very wide frequency response that was not affected by reducing the load impedance from 100k ohms to 600 ohms or by varying the volume-control settings.The channels were superbly matched, both dropping by only 2dB at 200kHz."
"As with its predecessor, the DAC2 HGC, which Erick Lichte reviewed for Stereophile in February 2014, Benchmark’s DAC3 HGC offers state-of-the-art measured performance."
"All I can say is 'Wow!'" - John Atkinson
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."