DAC3 HGC Review - Theo Nicolakis, TechHive.com
DAC3 HGC - Tech Hive "Editors' Choice" 2018
Unboxing the DAC3 is an audio geek’s dream. You’re greeted by a spiral-bound, 8.5 x 11-inch color user manual. New users would do well to review its contents.
"The manual shows you how to fine-tune many of the DAC3’s settings ... the Benchmark DAC3’s design puts you in complete control of its operational parameters."
"The Benchmark DAC3 HGC looks like a premium product as you hold it. It feels dense and solid for its small size. The rear digital and analog inputs and outputs are gold plated to limit oxidation."
"Benchmark’s infrared remote control stands apart from the crowd. Its hefty, die-cast aluminum design puts it in sharp contrast to most of today’s remotes."
"The Benchmark DAC3’s DAC, headphone, and preamp functions are outstanding. I tested the preamp section with two of the company’s AHB2 power amplifiers with the amps set to bridged mono. I paired a set of of RBH Sound’s top-of-the-line Signature SV-1212NR Reference speakers with the amps; served content via an Oppo UDP-205 universal disc player, Roon Media server, and Tidal; and used Focal Clear, Oppo PM-2, and Beyerdynamic Amiron Home headphones in my listening tests."
"A Maestro of Any Musical Genre"
"Jazz, hip-hop, classical, or rock, the Benchmark DAC3 proved a maestro of any musical genre, consistently demonstrating tremendous balance, refinement, neutrality, and most of all, command."
"The DAC3 HGC is undeniably geared toward the discerning music lover or audio engineer who values peak performance. If you’re passionate about music, have the funds, and aren’t looking for bells and whistles, you can’t go wrong with Benchmark’s DAC3 HGC. Pair it with the right headphones and you’ll have many days and nights of sonic bliss."
- Theo Nicolakis, Tech Hive
Also in Reviews
DAC3 - Award Nominee - Best Digital Audiophile Product of 2024 (Cost No Object)
2024 Nominees
- Benchmark Media DAC3 B DAC, $1895
- Bricasti M3 DAC, $6000
- Bricasti M19 CD-SACD Player, $10,000
- T+A DAC 200, $7620
- Weiss Engineering Helios DAC, $21,995
"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."
LA4 Review - Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com
"Benchmark Media Systems made its reputation in both pro audio and audiophile circles by designing gear with extraordinarily low noise and distortion, and selling it at reasonable prices."
"What Makes the Benchmark LA4 Preamp So Special?"
"A high-quality volume control is much of what makes a superior preamp shine, and the Benchmark’s volume control is outstanding. The Benchmark LA4 uses a bank of precision resistors switched by gold-contact relays to set volume in 256 steps of 0.5 decibels each."
"If accurate reproduction is your wish, you won’t find a preamp with meaningfully better objective performance than the Benchmark LA4, especially one made in the United States at anything near the LA4’s price."
"Very few preamps at any price reach the LA4’s level of objective performance."
"On the subjective end of things, the Benchmark LA4 preamp puts the lie to the old audiophile myth that neutrality means clinical, cold, or sterile sound. Instead, here neutrality means musical, involving sound, with precise, stable imaging, a sense of space (if one is on the recording), and exceptionally truthful timbres."
- Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com
AHB2 Review - Mike Prager, Future Audiophile
"For years, the audio world acknowledged one main contender (at least at sub-five-figure pricing) for the quietest, cleanest, most neutral power amplifier around. That was the Benchmark AHB2, whose specifications are still, for all practical purposes, unsurpassed, even by today’s excellent Class-D amps."
"10 years after its release, the Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 stereo power amp is still a standard-bearer in clean, neutral sound in the audiophile world."
"I greatly enjoyed having a pair of AHB2s in my system – their purity, neutrality, and seemingly unlimited power provided a clear window on the music and a lot of joy."
"I especially appreciated the AHB2’s smooth, well-integrated treble, free of splashiness or grain, and its natural reproduction of the human voice."
- Mike Prager, Future Audiophile