DAC3 HGC Review - Tom Lyle, Enjoy the Music.com
DAC3 HGC - "I was Immediately Impressed by the Sound"
"The separation of sounds, that see-through quality, and the air around individual instruments and voices is what distinguishes the difference between simply good high-end digital components and excellent sounding high-end digital components."
"It is this sense of space that I more often than not notice first. And I noticed this trait immediately with the Benchmark Media DAC3 HGC."
"The headphone output of the DAC3 is magnificent."
"Used as a headphone amplifier the DAC3 seems to have many of the same traits as its main outputs., as its separation of instruments is extremely admirable, and its way of reproducing what some call a soundfield, or a headphone soundstage, is also outstanding."
"The star of the show is the unit's digital converter, which uses an ESS Sabre Pro 32-bit converter chip. I could easily fill the rest of the review with not only a description of the converting prowess of this ESS Sabre Pro chip, but also discuss its excellent specifications. Briefly, the ESS Sabre Pro has a 32-bit PCM D/A conversion system, four 32-bit D/A converters per channel."
"Benchmark's DAC3 includes a digital output, which is a digital pass-through from its USB, S/PDIF coax, and TosLink optical inputs when the function is enabled. The Benchmark Media DAC3 comes with a nice metal remote that controls all of the functions that one is most likely to need when sitting in one's listening seat."
"Fantastic"
"The Benchmark Media DAC3 HGC is a fantastic digital-to-analog converter that comes with a fantastic headphone amplifier with two outputs, and can also double as a fantastic preamplifier. Its asking price is more than reasonable for such a versatile component, with a sound quality that can be compared to units costing much more."
- Tom Lyle, Enjoy the Music.com
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+