![]() The Parasounds drove the MoFi SourcePoint 10 loudspeakers I reviewed in the February issue. The Benchmark's balanced outputs were connected to the Parasound Halo JC 1+ monoblocks with 3m lengths of AudioQuest Wild Blue cable. I connected the USB output of my Roon Nucleus+ server to the DAC3 B via an AudioQuest JitterBug FMJ. While it uses the same complement of ES9028PRO DAC chips as the flagship HGC and retains the USB port, the B offers a fixed output level and omits the headphone amplifier, balanced and unbalanced analog inputs, volume, mute, and polarity controls, and the remote control. The product under review is a stripped-down version of the DAC3 HGC, the B, which is priced at $1799, significantly less than the HGC's $2299. I never auditioned the DAC3 HGC in my own system, so when I got an opportunity to borrow a sample of the DAC3 B, I eagerly agreed. "This is as good as a DAC can currently get!" I concluded. "The Benchmark DAC3 featured extraordinarily low levels of analog noise at its outputs," I wrote, adding that the Benchmark's resolution was at least 21 bits. In November 2017, Jim Austin reviewed the fully loaded HGC version, which featured an asynchronous, 192k-capable USB 2.0 port, S/PDIF, and AES3 inputs that are fully isolated from interface jitter by Benchmark's UltraLock3 jitter attenuation system, and 32-bit PCM and native DSD conversion using four balanced 32-bit ES9028PRO DAC chips.Ĭomparing it with his DAC1, Jim was impressed by the DAC3's sound, as was I by its measured performance. More than a decade later, Benchmark made a major step forward with its DAC3 D/A preamplifier-headphone amplifier. The DAC1 now resides in our storage unit, as I have been using a succession of D/A processors that offer USB or Ethernet ports, reflecting my increasing use of a computer as the primary source of digitally encoded music. Its grain-free presentation was accompanied by stable, well-defined soundstaging, and low frequencies that, if not as weighty as, were still full-balanced."īenchmark updated the DAC1 by adding a USB 1.1 port that could handle data with sample rates up to 96kHz and bit depths up to 24, but for years I stuck with the original non-USB DAC1 as one of my daily drivers. I subsequently wrote, in a follow-up review, that the diminutive Benchmark "punched way above its weight. John Atkinson wrote about the Benchmark DAC3 B D/A processor in March 2023 (Vol.46 No.3):Īfter I read John Marks's review of Benchmark Media Systems' DAC1 D/A processor/headphone amplifier in the July 2003 issue of Stereophile, I bought a rack-mounted version to use for my on-location recording projects.
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