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by Benchmark Media Systems June 09, 2017 3 min read
"Benchmark Media Systems, Inc.’s DAC series of high-performance digital-to-analog converters (DACs) have earned the respect of audio enthusiasts and professional users alike for their state-of-the-art performance, including exceptional audio transparency and vanishingly-low levels of noise and distortion. Now Benchmark has made its DAC3 even better with the upgrade to ESS Technology’s new ES9028PRO DAC chip."
"The heart of Benchmark’s DAC2 is ESS Technology’s ES9018 digital-to-analog converter chip, widely recognized in the industry as one of the best DAC chips and, until now, the best in the view of Benchmark’s Vice President and Director of Engineering John Siau."
"ESS’s Sabre ES9018 DAC chip is now seven years old, and Benchmark began working with the new Sabre ES9028PRO after ESS announced its new chip last October. Measurements and listening tests convinced Benchmark of the new chip’s superiority."
"The ES9028PRO has a 64-pin footprint, and is pin-compatible with the ES9018, enabling Benchmark to drop it into the same PC board used in the DAC2. This makes the DAC3 a cost-effective upgrade. Siau notes that the DAC3 is like a DAC2 on steroids. In addition to the new ESS chip, the software and the analog gain structure are different from those in the DAC2."
"The 32-bitdigital processing in the ES9028PRO not only compensates for harmonic distortion at the chip’s own analog outputs, but it can also be adjusted to compensate for distortion in the post-DAC analog circuitry. The second and third harmonic distortion components can also be independently nulled."
"This graph shows the DAC3’s second harmonic distortion with the ES9028PRO DAC chip’s THD compensation disabled (black) and enabled (red). The THD compensation yields a significant reduction in distortion in the critical midrange, where the ear is most sensitive."
"ESS has improved the PLL in the ES9028PRO, giving the new chip faster lock times than the ES9018. Benchmark has used this to good advantage, changing the timing in the UltraLock2 system used in the DAC2 to create UltraLock3 for the DAC3s. Jitter attenuation in the two systems is virtually identical and exceeds the performance of the PLL in the ESS DAC chips."
"With the ES9028PRO, the DAC3 muting time is reduced to around 6 mS."
"Since last year, my reference DAC has been the DAC2 HGC, so making comparisons between the two was very easy. The DAC’s balanced outputs feed a pair of Benchmark AHB2 power amplifiers, one for each channel."
"The DAC3 HGC retains all the virtues of its predecessor, including its remarkable transparency and a seemingly non-existent noise floor. There’s also a sense of effortlessness and a complete lack of strain even on the most complex musical scores. But, the most obvious areas of improvement are in the reproduction of inner detail and soundstage delineation."
"The DAC3 HGC ensures Benchmark Media’s continued leadership in high-resolution digital audio, and I highly recommend the DAC3 HGC."
- Gary Galo, AudioXpress
Download the full review and bench report (PDF) →
by Benchmark Media Systems June 06, 2023 1 min read
Why Did You Buy Benchmark Gear?
"I'm asking because clearly Benchmark is a highly regarded company here, and plenty of ASR members own Benchmark amplification/DACs. We know they are top of the heap in terms of measured performance, outdoing plenty of the competition in terms of typical distortion measurements."
- @MattHooper, AudioScienceReview.com
AHB2, LA4, DAC3
- @KellenVancouver, AudioScienceReview.com
by Benchmark Media Systems April 23, 2023 1 min read
"The afternoon before the start of the show I ran into John Siau of Benchmark Media Systems. He says to me quietly, “make sure you stop in our room, we have a surprise!” With curiosity suitably piqued, Co-Editor Jim Clements and I paid a visit ..."
"The results were pretty astonishing. A stable, enveloping stereo image that was devoid of any distortion whatsoever."
- Carlo Lo Raso, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
by Benchmark Media Systems April 21, 2023 1 min read
"Sound was extremely well-integrated and controlled, and the bass memorable."
"The Note received signal through the introductory version of the company's Liquid Cables. Each cable contains 27,000 wires. The company's introductory Elephant memory player joined Benchmark Media's AHB2 power amps, DAC3 B D/A processor, and interconnects."
"With the aid of a forthcoming DEQX HDP4 processor that's due in the fall, the system sounded super on a 16/44.1 file of the famed rendition of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, recorded by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra for Reference Recordings."
- Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile Magazine