DAC3 Review - Mark Marcantonio, Tone Audio
DAC3 HGC - "At the Top of its Class ... Highly Recommended"
"Listening to a 24-bit piano solo of Dick Hyman’s Thinking About Bix, the DAC3 HGC reveals both the expansive smoothness as well as the energetic impact this unit gives the listener. The tickling of the ivories in “Ostrich Walk” is packed with playful jabs."
"I’m immediately struck by the way the depth presented by the current model immerses you in the recording, high or low resolution in nature. One of my favorite go to tracks, Handel’s Saul, HMV 53: III. Allegro with its luscious woodwinds leading the violin melody is beautifully rendered."
"Having put the DAC3 through its paces with a wide range of tube and solid state amplifiers for The Audiophile Apartment, as the core of a high performance, yet highly compact system, the DAC3 is a charmer, indeed."
"The three-dimensionality is the best I’ve achieved on my reference system."
"Other playlist favorites achieve the same degree of sonic involvement. Even Bob Seger’s classic live recording of “Turn The Page” has more front to back energy than expected. Seger’s vocals have a smoothness that shouldn’t be available from a 1970’s concert recording. This is a special digital product indeed."
DAC3 HGC - Includes the HPA2™ Headphone Amplifier
"As a headphone amp, the ability to set the output level makes the DAC3 HGC a versatile performer, allowing whatever headphones you have at your disposal to perform at their best. From an easy to drive pair of Grado’s, to power hungry HD series Sennheisers, the DAC3 HGC handles them all with ease."
"Benchmark’s years of studio experience comes in handy, as they understand the importance of matching the available level of gain to the intended device."
"Those not needing headphone capabilities, can save a few bucks by choosing the standard DAC3 L model."
"FYI, the quality of the headphone amplifier included in the DAC3 HGC is way better than anything you’ll find for three hundred bucks, so if you’re even considering a headphone amp, this is money well spent."
Tone Audio Exceptional Value Award
"Since the introduction of the original DAC1, Benchmark has set the industry on its ear, providing a true reference quality DAC at an easily approachable price. While the cost has more than doubled, so has the performance. We gave the original DAC 1 our first Exceptional Value award in issue 3, and the current DAC3 HGC is an equally good value, earning this award again in 2017."
- Marck Marcantonio, Tone Audio
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