Benchmark DAC1, worth it?

I didn't think so, but perhap it might be to you.

If you need pre outs get the 1,575 DAC1.. It also comes with a off/on switch & a few other upgrades from the DAC1 with USB.. I have the non usb DAC1, & really love it..

I have a thread about this same topic going on over at my site. An engineer from benchmark explains the difference between the two DACs. Here is the link.

DAC1 USB v. DAC1 PRE

I demoed the basic non-USB version for just under 30 days.

There was nothing wrong with it per se, just that it didn't provide the level of improvment I was expecting for $1,000.

No surprise there. I wouldn't have expected any improvement at all, personally. DAC's is DAC's except in very rare circumstances.

The outboard DAC is a holdover from an era when the DACs in many CD players were not as good as they are today. Anymore, it is redundant.

Just to be clear, I don't mean to imply that I thought I heard no difference. Only that what I heard wasn't sufficient justification for ME to spend $1,000.

Just to be clear, I don't believe you heard a difference at all. I believe your biases controlled that reaction.

Well, if I were so biased I'd have probably kept it and been singing its praises, yes?

Check my past threads. I wrote all about it. My brother and I did as best we could with blind, level matched testing.

No matter which way you choose to read it, the net result was the same. It went back to Benchmark within the return period for the aforementioned reason - not enough difference for me to justify $1K.

This really is a tough question. And I`m sure, the answer will be different for everyone, based on needs. I`m also considering the Benchmark, because it is also a excellent headphone amplifier. Its between Benchmark, and one of the Headroom amps.
Which brings me to this.

You can enter to win a Benchmark Media $995.00 DAC at HomeTheaterReview.com. I think it ends on 1/31/09. The publisher Jerry, told me he has another event coming up with a $35,000 Neptune Audio room correction EQ for next month. This guy sold AVREV.com.
Anyway, I also signed up for the newsletter for the sweepstakes, but I do not think you have to do that to enter. Although the newsletter is pretty good. Recent stories about the fall of Circuit City, what happened at Mark Levinson/Harman, and the destruction of Sirius all have been really good.

So, who wants to win a Benchmark, I know I would!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any audio purchase is a matter of personal choice. I purchased the Benchmark DAC-1 and heard a gratifying improvement in audio quality, and so it remains in my system. Those interested can buy with a 30 day return option, or save a few bucks buying used at Audiogon. But I recommend you check the serial number with the folks at Benchmark to be sure it has the proper fuses. They are great people to deal with.

I don't know if the DAC-1 Pre is worth the extra money or not, but I don't know how anyone can live without a remote - for volume control if nothing else. And I would like to see it with a HT input so it could be integrated into a HT system.

I think the $1275 or $1575 is better spent in other ways if you're looking to upgrade your system: room treatments, a subwoofer, media, etc.

I had 2 Benchmark DAC1 and both are non USB version. I felt in love with it first time when I listen to it. Wide and deep sound stage with air around each instruement. Definitely one of the best $975 investment on my 2 channel system. My second one sent stright to Empirical Audo for full Turbo mod with Opamp 627 upgrade. It turns into a completely different beast with the music pops out in 3D holographic scence. You can actually see the music and live band performing in front of you when you close your eyes. I blind folding my 2 other friends to audition my system without knowing I have my DAC1 and they both think the system was singing through an Analog system. But both said, where are the pops and crack noise from my LP ? It is that good.

I heard that the USB version sound the same with XLR or RCA input but lose out the edge when connected through USB. It is still their version 1 in terms of USB interface. Get a used DAC1 in Agon for about $700 and pick up new or used Squeezebox SB3, I replaced this setup with my $4000 CDP for about $1K.

The Cary CDP-1 can be had new discounted for about $1400 and it's using what is probably the best Burr Brown DAC right now. Plus it does upsampling beyond 192khz. Why bother with an expensive DAC? Plus it sounds better than some other expensive CD players I've auditioned.

absolutely!

I have the DAC1 PRE USB version and it's just incredible, for the headphone outs at the least (I have barely tested it as a pre-amp yet). I tried some others, none quite at this price level, not even quite at half its level to be fair, and while they helped a little here and there compared to my X-Meridian with OPA627s in it with some headphones, it was switching to this one that I was just blown away.

They say adding more $ gets you less and less in return, but in this case adding more money made a much bigger difference IMO than adding half as much or a quarter as much did.

The near 0 ohm output for headphones means it can drive ANY type of headphone at all without false coloration to the frequency response and the clarity is just stunning and things started to sound truly live (well you do need to plug in a very good head phone of course, stuff like AKG 701, Sennheiser HD600/HD650 and the like). Incredibly subtle detail.

And I am one who DOES think that a great deal of high-end audio is nothing more than snake oil, especially when it comes to all that fancy cable nonsense and how this cable isolates the quantum structure that and was frozen for six hours at 300 deg below absolute zero to do this and how this digital interconnect magically signal processes ANY type of bitstream and tightens the bass and smooths the treble etc. For much stuff all you need it the right gauge and home depot wire will do you fine. (obviously for some things you do need shielding, such as analog video by RCA cable which can be prone to picking up interference, depending, but that is very different)

But wow this really proved that any old headphone amp just ain't the same as any other.

The most extreme difference would be with phones that have a very curved response frequency to impedance, like some inner ear phones and many Sennheiser, but that is just down to super low impedance headphone jack. But it's very important for many headphones.

The clarity and lack of added distortion and the jitter-free signal fed to the filters etc. helps any head phone of high enough quality to not scramble the input too much to begin with. Some of the $600 head phone amps didn't sound all that different with the AKG 701 compared to the better $250 ones and my x-meridian with OPA627 but did make a bigger difference with Sennheiser HD600/650 but with this Benchmark headphone amp there was a difference with everything, smooth and live sounding.

I was actually surprised how easy it was to tell some headphone sources apart from others.

If you just use it to drive speakers I can't really say I didn't test it too much yet, been just reveling in the headphone output, and my X-meridian with the OPA627 upgrade seems to do a decent job of driving speakers. I liked the OPA627 better in my x-meridian than the much talked about LME4562 (that this Benchmark features), at least with my receiver/speaker pairing.

I had the DAC1 years ago and it was amazing with the deepest soundstage I've ever heard, and micro details so astounding that I felt I was walking around amongst the musicians in 3D. I used 2 digital inputs and used the variable output as a preamp to a tube power amp.

The PRE version is reported as the best sounding Benchmark DAC, and the analogue input is worth the extra money. I sold mine because I wanted the analogue input and remote, but alas I couldn't afford The PRE. If it is in your budget I'd say, Yes go for it!

by any chance have you carefully dbl blind tested it against anything else (with careful level matching done by voltmeter). Not that I doubt you on it, but I was just wondering. On another thread a couple guys insist that it would be impossible to tell even from an ipod in a dbl blind test even when used with hard to drive headphones or ones that have major curves in their impedance vs frequency response. I know it is very easy to deceive onself, it can be hard to avoid, but I think they are pushing the dbl blind test or nothing is ever valid under any circumstance or extreme ever and it's not even worth the bother ever and you may as well flip coins that bother to compare if dbl blind is not an option are taking it a bit too far.

Can you quote it?

Funniest post of the year !

You do realize that the year in question was 2009, don't you?

i kept listing various scenarios and no matter what scenario i listed you just came back with posts about how dbl blind or forget it not matter what

i even posted about specific, actual measurements and you were dbl blind or forget no matter what

maybe you don't believe the above, but you never bothered to respond in any detail, so i was just left to assume you disagreed with everything, although it seems that is not actually the case and if you think it probably would be possible to tell at least some headphones driven by an ipod then by BM headphone out then I retract the above post I made here

so what? did they stop making them? did all old copies spontaneously combust? can no one ever add anything to a subject more than a month later than a subject was first broached?

You may want to go back to that thread and reread what's been said by "couple guys" you referred to and try to understand the core issue of what’s being discussed. Your method of comparison was insufficient based on the details you provided to draw any meaningful conclusion on the difference you noticed. If you want to use that result for your own consumption, fine, knock yourself out. But if you want to post claims online, you need to have a better understanding of objective comparison.

You know what they say when you ASSUME.

How do you know that the measurements you saw/remembered from somewhere are directly correlated to what you believe you heard? (they are, but not in the way you think).
Were your listening tests controlled to eliminate all other possible factors, so that you can claim A caused me to hear B, not other factors you are oblivious to?

cheers,

AJ