Reviews

AHB2 - "Dynamic, open, with quick, taut bass - yet with the silky ease of the best tube amp"

"Like the Benchmark D/As and A/D, the company believes that great measurements correlate to great sound. In the case of the AHB2 I totally agree."

"The AHB2’s sonic character is dynamic, open, with quick, taut bass - yet with the silky ease of the best tube amp. But tube amps don’t have the energy and speed in the transients, nor bass, that the Benchmark possesses."

"I can’t wait to get two more for a full-high-end home cinema amp test in my big A/V room. For now, based on mostly stereo listening, it receives, with certainty, an Everything Audio Network Stellar Sound Award."

- John Gatski, Everything Audio Network

DAC2 HGC - "The Best of the Best!"

"2013 Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Award"

"What an achievement! ... its incredible versatility and over-achieving sonic performance make it more than extraordinary!"

"This DAC just about has it all, ultra versatility and smooth, seductive sonics approaching state-of-the-art. It was such an over-achiever, I put my money where my mouth is; I bought it!"

- Greg Weaver, Positive Feedback

DAC2 HGC - "Sonically as Neutral a DAC as I Have Ever Heard"

"The Benchmark DAC2 HGC is sonically as neutral a DAC as I have ever heard. It borders on a somewhat light sonic texture with absolutely no digital hardness or extreme brightness. The sound is quite detailed and well defined with no warmth or added richness. One attribute of the DAC2 HGC I enjoyed was its very well defined and articulated bass."

"What I enjoyed most about the Benchmark DAC2 HGC was the way it handled native DSD files. DSD playback added richness to the sound with additional midrange weight that added realism to the reproduced music."

"The DAC2 HGC was a pleasure to listen to with PCM and especially with native DSD files."

"Its acoustic honesty and functional precision was easily observed and appreciated."

- Steven Plaskin, Audio Stream

DAC2 HGC - "Far More Refined Than its Price Would Suggest"

"The DAC2 HGC uses one of the best digital chipsets on the market today to produce a quality of sound that, until a few years ago, wasn't available for less than $10,000."

"It sounds far more refined than its price would suggest, and when you consider that it can serve as the keystone of a digital and analog system, on a desktop or in a listening room, it becomes all the more remarkable." 

- Hans Wetzel, SoundStage! Access 

ADC16 - "I am So Impressed How Real Sounding These Benchmark Converters Are"

"Benchmark Media has designed reference quality professional and audiophile products for nearly 20 years. The reference quality ADC1 and DAC1 series of converters are some of the best digital converters on the market."

"I played a Gibson Custom Shop ’59 Les Paul, which has a fantastic warm humbucker tone. I have recorded this rig with other converters, but the Benchmark ADC16-recorded tunes played back through the DAC1 USB (or even my Apogee DAC) blew them all away. I have never heard my guitar rig sound this good..."

"If ever an audio product deserved the Everything Audio Network Stellar Sound Award, it is indeed the Benchmark ADC16."

- Jackson Macinnis, Everything Audio Network

DAC1 HDR - "The studio heritage of this Benchmark preamp is quite obvious"

"The studio heritage of this Benchmark preamp is quite obvious. I'd like to say the sound was lean but not thin. I expect this however is an artifact of my sonic memory, having listened to far too many tubby tubed pre-amps in my past. In fact, I believe it is merely neutral. And unlike all but the best solid state preamps or integrateds I have listened to, there was none of that solid state hash or haze heard through lesser designs. Detail was neither absent nor did it draw undue attention to itself. Highs were not rolled off, nor were they shrill. Bass was as it should be."

- Jeff Rabin, Enjoy the Music.com



DAC1 HDR - "Tone Audio Exceptional Value Award"

"I am proud to give the latest version of Benchmark’s DAC1 one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2010."

"This is a fantastic anchor to a system in the $4,000 – $10,000 range and one that you will have to pay quite a bit more money to outgrow."

- Jeff Dorgay, Tone Audio