Black Friday Special - Buy 2 Components and Save 10% (Orders Over $3798 Only) - Free shipping on all orders over $700.

    0

    Your Cart is Empty

    Products
  • AHB2 Power Amplifier Black

    Power Amplifier

  • HPA4 Headphone Amplifier Silver

    Headphone Amplifier

  • LA4 Line Amplifier Silver

    Line Amplifier

  • Digital to Analog Converters

  • DAC3 Review - Dan Worth, Hifi Pig

    DAC3 Review - Dan Worth, Hifi Pig
    Hifi Pig Magazine, www.hifipig.com

    Benchmark DAC3 HGC Silver with remote

    DAC3 HGC - "A Genetically Modified Version of the DAC2"

    "With the implementation of the latest ESS9028PRO chip from Sabre ... a genetically modified version of the already popular DAC2 is born."

    "There’s no denying that Benchmark are well known in the Hifi world for producing DACs which produce clean, uncoloured and truthful music."

    "The core characteristic of all Benchmark DACs is to extract all the detail as transparently as possible, remain flat and cohesive in its presentation and allow the listener to engage deep into the music."

    "Harmonically the DAC3 produced definitions of clarity that pushed away inner walls, giving height, depth and a feeling of surround sound."

    "The precision in which the DAC3 produces each note is combined with a real flow to the music."

    Benchmark DAC3 HGC Silver

    "Nils Lofgren’s live version of ‘Keith Don’t Go’ showed the potential speed and precision of the DAC3, strings started and stopped on a dime, decays were never sacrificed for precision and using the DAC3 really and truly lifts a veil from the system. Combinations of full bodied undertones and crisp leading edges brings music to life, extracting far more information in all areas of the frequency range than DACs costing quite a fair bit more… and the implementation of the ES9028PRO is just superb."

    "When a female artist such as Rachelle Farrell takes a breath, it’s a breath that is heard, not a sound that resembles a breath. When Joss Stone’s lips touch in-between words a moistness can be heard. When Chris Jones has a little hum while the intro is being played it’s very evident and puts a smile on my face as I can then imagine him eager to get going. All these small significant moments increase the reality of a performance."

    "There’s a lot of praise I could give to the Benchmark and some of it in all honesty is to my surprise, I am most taken aback by the sheer cohesiveness produced in conjunction with the amounts of detail available; it’s all done so effortlessly."

    "Precision, depth, tonal accuracy and the freedom of the music within the soundstage and for whatever genre I played. The hybrid volume control is very nice and the tactile feel of the knob itself is very good, the facility itself was used with the active setup and its implementation is very well done. Equally so was the remote control which I used generally to adjust volume levels in this setup and also when listening to my headphones through the DAC."

    Hifi Pig Recommended logo"My system felt like a dominant force when I introduced the Benchmark DAC3 HGC to the middle shelf of my rack. With the implementation of the latest ESS9028PRO chip from Sabre, Benchmark’s own team of experts, tweaking the accompanied circuitry and the feature rich design offered in this petite package, a genetically modified version of the already popular DAC2 is born."

    - Dan Worth, Hifi Pig

    Read the full review →


    Also in Reviews

    AHB2 - A-Rated Recommended Power Amplifier - Stereophile

    AHB2 - A-Rated Recommended Power Amplifier - Stereophile

    by Benchmark Media Systems September 15, 2023 1 min read

    Stereophile LogoBenchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier

    AHB2 - Receives Stereophile's Highest "A" Rating for Power Amplifiers

    "Benchmark's AHB2 makes use of THX Corporation's Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA) technology, in which a low-power feed-forward amplifier drives a low-bias class-AB output section."

    - Stereophile, 2023

    "Much more apparent low-level detail in already-familiar recordings" - Kalman Rubinson

    "A tonal balance that sounded more 'right' than any of [the other amps on hand]." - Kalman Rubinson

    "An extraordinary amplifier." - John Atkinson

    Read Full Post
    LA4 - Class A Recommended Preamplifier - Stereophile

    LA4 - Class A Recommended Preamplifier - Stereophile

    by Benchmark Media Systems September 15, 2023 1 min read

    Stereophile Logo

    Benchmark LA4 Silver

    LA4 - Receives Stereophile's Highest "Class A" Rating for Preamplifiers

    "Benchmark's usual approach to design is to out-spec the competition, and so it is here. Like other Benchmark equipment he has tested, the affordable LA4 challenged the resolution of John Atkinson's test instruments, with 'superb' channel separation, 'extremely low noise, and virtually no power-supply-related spuriae.'"

    "Benchmark's LA4 is the widest-bandwidth, widest-dynamic-range, lowest-noise, lowest-distortion preamplifier I have encountered." - John Atkinson

    "In his listening room, Kalman Rubinson compared the LA4 to a cable—and couldn't hear any difference. He concludes, 'the LA4 is probably the most transparent and revealing audio component I've ever used. It does not seem to leave any fingerprints on the sound.'"

    - Stereophile, 2023

    Read Full Post
    Stereophile 2023 Recommended Component Badge

    DAC3 - Class A+ Recommended Processor - Stereophile

    by Benchmark Media Systems September 15, 2023 1 min read

    Stereophile Logo

    Benchmark DAC3

    DAC3 HGC, DAC3 B - Receive Stereophile's Highest "Class A+" Rating

    "The DAC3 B is a stripped- down, lower-priced version of the DAC3 HGC, which omits the headphone amplifier, balanced and unbalanced analog inputs, volume, mute, and polarity controls." - Stereophile

    "The DAC3 was all about depths, in several respects...I heard deeper into the music."

    "All I can say is Wow!"

    - John Atkinson

    "In a Follow-Up, JCA wrote of using the Benchmark processor with the same company's AHB2 power amp—a combination of high source output voltage and modest amplifier gain that he describes as 'optimal for minimizing noise and distortion' —and reported hearing 'richer and more interesting' reproduction of very subtle details."

    - Stereophile

    Read Full Post