Dac Happy

[Welder]

I found it slightly concerning how easily my usual thriftiness (come on, be nice ;)) got swept aside when my kit started smoking and tunes were no longer forthcoming.
I’ve had a few bits and pieces in and out since then and finally I took the advice of a friend who got me into digital audio in the first place and got myself a Benchmark Dac2 HGC.

I’m not going to dwell on this point but I just want to point out that currently you can buy one of these in the USA for around $1900, that’s roughly twelve hundred quid so if you can buy in the US and have it brought over………:eyebrows:

Okay, it’s still a heck of a lot for a Dac but then look at what you get.
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/dac/dac2-hgc

In what was my system, this covers what was around five hundred quids worth of HRT Pro with cables and in my case a separate power supply lash up, a World Audio 83 headphone amp which I believe are also around five hundred quid these days and should I so wish, a Pre amp that despite it’s diminutive size and solid state construction will I suspect give many single box pre amps a bit of a shock.

I’ve read quite a few Dac reviews from the usual suspects and frankly came to the conclusion that even the nice chap hobbyist reviewers are somewhat enthusiastic regarding their hearing and the various sonic performances of bits of kit, particularly when it comes to some of the more expensive bits of kit. :rolleyes:

Why bother even mentioning this? Well twelve hundred quid isn’t really a lot of money for decent Hi Fidelity equipment these days it seems (Did I just write that :eek:) and the Benchmark Dac2 HGC is about as high fidelity as they come.
Next, consider that I really didn’t want a Benchmark Dac at all. I mean, everyone in the Pro audio world has one it seems and for the audiophile in me, well, they’re just not very exciting; not like all those newer yet to be reviewed, relatively unknown, or phenomenally expensive audiophile bits of kit.

Well, the horrible truth is in my system this is the best Dac I’ve heard. I even prefer it to the Metric Halo my friend has. :clap:

There really isn’t much point in trying to describe how it sounds; plenty of reviews on the net if such things mean anything to you.
What is novel for me and something I’m looking forward to experimenting more with are the various input and output options with just wasn’t possible with the HRT Pro.
What has surprised me most is just how good the headphone amp is and I think I may have finally learnt why many prefer valve headphone amps to solid state. It really is an interesting experiment to listen directly to the Benchmark then send the signal to a discrete Headphone amp. :hmm:

When all the debates about tone and presentation, etc, dwindle away into personal preferences what pleases me most is from what I can hear and from what others have written and said, the Benchmark HGC doesn’t have these qualities and I can be fairly confident that should I want flavors then I can confidently tinker either with my speakers or the digital file which imo is where any flavors should live. :)

[DSJR]

Well, you know my thoughts on kit these days and £1200 is a ridiculous price to pay for 'just' a DAC when the chip manufacturers do most of it for you these days, but as you've said, the benchmark does a good headphone amp AND a decent preamp built in too. The fact that so many independant engineers basically say that this unit gives you pretty well as good as it's going to be must count for a lot as well and I still believe that many top end DACs costing far more are basically bodging what's really there to make a statement which bends the audible truth - IMO of course.

Enjoy, and be very suspicious of any DAC that sounds totally different, as I'm sure many expensive ones may :)

[roob]

Heard the DAC 2 a few weeks ago, it is a very fine sounding piece of kit.

[Welder]

Cheers Dave and roob

Despite the cost I am really pleased with it. I’ve had my ear out for a Dac that sounded noticeably better in my system pretty much since I first started posting here.
I’m not sure I would cough up say the UK price. It could have been worse; I could have had to pay for the Metric Halo! :eek:

I listened to quite a few Dacs before I came out here, mostly those with Pro audio leanings and the impression I got was the really noticeable differences were in facilities.There were slight differences in sound but the Benchmarks I heard just sounded right.

The HRT Pro was/is very close in sound providing it’s all set up properly at the computer end and it gets the full 4.5 Volts. What the Benchmark does in my system is clean up the highest and lowest frequencies and provides an easier to listen to presentation.
The sound stage is presented differently and separation is better with complex passages.

I’ve had a brief go with some of the output options and I’ve got some DSD files on the way to listen to.

I have had a few problems getting one or two of the Linux distros I seem to have accumulated to recognize the Dac using USB but I’m not sure yet if it’s because I’ve fucked, or there are inherent driver problems. Plenty of stuff on various Linux forums on workarounds.
For PC and Mac it’s all pretty straightforward afaik.

Sounds very nice with my music server running PuppyLinux and Deadbeef from RAM atm. :)

I’m going to give the HiFace USB drivers a shot at some later date, more out of interest than anything else.

If someone is thinking of spending this kind of money or more on a Dac then specification wise this is about as good as it gets at any price. After that it’s just a question of whether or not you like it I suppose.