DAC3 Review - Ben Shyman, Home Theater Review
DAC3 - "Its Sound is Among the Best at Any Price"
"Benchmark Media began in the mid-1980s providing audio equipment to television broadcast facilities. Today it is recognized amongst recording professionals and high-end audio enthusiasts for producing high-end, sonically transparent components."
"The DAC3 is solidly built ..."
"The components look as if they were designed for studio performance. If you are seeking slick, contemporary componentry with digital displays and backlit remotes, you will fare better shopping elsewhere."
"Features include a hybrid gain control (the digital and analog volume paths are discrete), a high-current preamp output with multiple settings that can be adjusted to better match the input sensitivity of your power amplifier, analog inputs, a headphone amplifier, a home theater pass-through, a 12-volt trigger, and the same heavy-duty metal remote control that the company has offered for years. The front panel includes eight LEDs that indicate which input is in use, as well as six LEDs that indicate sample rate and word length. This is incredibly helpful ..."
"While the DAC3's aesthetics are identical to those of the DAC2, the similarities stop there. All major changes and upgrades are internal, the biggest being the ESS ES9028PRO digital-to-analog converter. As of this writing, only three companies utilize chips in the new ESS PRO lineup."
"When I first began evaluating the DAC3, I was impressed with just how quiet it really is."
"The DAC3 also possesses an uncanny ability to resolve hidden details that typically get lost in a mix. With more resolved detail, the tonality of instruments sounds more real. As someone who played guitar for the better part of two decades, I felt like Laurence Juber (Altered Reality, Narada, TIDAL Hi-Fi), Richard Thomson (Acoustic Classics, TIDAL Hi-Fi) and Keb' Mo' (Just Like You, Epic, DSD64) were present and performing in my listening space. The vivacity and energy of their recordings took on new life and kept me fully engaged, even when re-listening to the tracks multiple times and finding new details to appreciate."
"The DAC3 also consistently underscored the ability of my Pass Labs XA30.8 and First Watt SIT-2 to produce highly accurate, precise, three-dimensional soundstages. The front-to-back layers and horizontal placement of instruments and vocals in A Love Supreme, Live in Amsterdam by the Branford Marsalis Quartet (Sony Masterworks, 24/48) and 1 by The Beatles (EMI/Apple, TIDAL Hi-Fi) were delivered with punctuated accuracy."
"The DAC3 soundstage is highly accurate, and its sound is among the best at any price."
"The DAC3 employs a state-of-the-art ES9028PRO SABRE digital-to-analog converter and will outlive the usual rapid technological obsolescence of most DACs."
"The headphone amplifier is a highly worthwhile addition to the HGC and DX models."
"The Benchmark DAC3, despite showing no differences in the aesthetics department over the DAC2, is a meaningful step forward in digital-to-analog conversion. It utilizes a state-of-the-art chipset from ESS and is somewhat future-proof as a result, compared with other DACs. I never owned the DAC2, but I did own a DAC1 for several years, and the sonic improvement here is significant on many levels."
"Like any component at any price, the DAC3 is not for everyone. However, if your priority is digital conversion of your favorite two-channel music and movies with purity and transparency, the DAC3 should receive your fullest consideration."
"It resolves digital sources with precision and finesse; and, whether you decide to use the DAC3 as a preamplifier/DAC or a standalone DAC, it is a complete winner and will be right at home in any audiophile two-channel system."
- Ben Shyman, Home Theater Review
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+