Tie for First Place, 16x Price Difference
DAC3 HGC - Top Two Finalist - "Digital Component of the Year"
"This contest produced another tie, and yet another contrast between two wildly different philosophies—economical, if not technical. As Jim Austin pointed out in his initial review, the DAC3 HGC D/A processor from Benchmark Media Systems—a company known for making pro-audio as well as domestic-audio gear—sells for less than the price of certain high-end interconnects. The dCS Vivaldi D/A processor sells for 16 times the Benchmark's price, and in our pages was first reviewed, by Michael Fremer, as part of a $114,996 dCS digital front end."
"Both DACs impressed their respective reviewers with magnificent sound—and in his measurements for both, John Atkinson offered the same one-word conclusion: "Wow!""
Notes on the Votes
"Different though our Joint Digital Products of the Year may be from one another, the vote breakdown was consistent: Each got the same number of first-place votes as the other, and the same number of second-place votes, as well."
"Interestingly, no other finalists in this category came even close to the Joint winners."
"Despite winning two first-place votes, the product that took second place—Schiit Audio's Yggdrasil D/A processor—received fewer than half as many votes as the winners, and even fewer votes were garnered by Roon Labs' Nucleus+ music server, which came in third. For whatever it's worth, last place was a six-way tie."
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