Want to upgrade your CD sound with an external DAC? I found a great one... (1 Viewer)

[Lee Scoggins]

Well friends,

I had a very fun listening session with my friend Denny who brought over some 24/88.2k recordings and played them right into my system. Some of them sounded as good as anything we did at Chesky in 90s. Open, dynamic, natural...most done with just two microphones in front of chamber ensembles playing classical just wonderful.

Denny also brought a DAC1 from Benchmark Media, a product I have been hearing a lot of. I wanted to compare this to the SCD-777ES internal DACs and see how big the sound gap was.

It sounded wonderful.

(I have no connection at with the company)

Best of all it has a very good volume control so we could drive the VT 100 tube amp of mine directly.

It was just magnificent. Just head and shoulders above the Sony although that sounded fine as well.

This thing equates to some of the $6-10K outboard DACs I have heard including the Theta Digital Gear and Levinson 390.

All for a cost of $850. A rare steal in audio. Consider it if you want to upgrade your CD player and have digital outs. I'm buying one soon.



Here's some information:

http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?886

www.benchmarkmedia.com

 

[Ron Reda]

I'm buying one soon.

I hope so so I can check it out!

Thanks for the info, Lee. I'll add this piece to my "audio lust" list!

 

[Craig_Kg]

See what buffering and reclocking can do, Lee?

I hope I can order one down here!

 

[Lee Scoggins]

See what buffering and reclocking can do, Lee?

I never denied that. This DAC has 9 picosecond jitter supposedly. The presentation is a very wide and deep soundstage (on the right recordings of course) and great levels of detail yet it does not sound too "clinical".

I think this is the DAC to have. I'm going to buy one to use for recording work and for my home system to improve the redbook playback for my SCD-777ES.

 

[Joe Casey]

Lee,
You might also want to try the dAck by Ack industries: battery power supply, no brickwall filters, no up/over-sampling. Very sweet for under $400. And you can try it risk-free for $50. Here it is.

 

[John Royster]

So Lee, you preferred DAC1 over the 777es?

That certainly is a statement. Were you able to try regular redbook playback? Any loss of detail using the variable output?

Sounds like a steal.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

So Lee, you preferred DAC1 over the 777es?

Hate to say it but YES! This only applies to redbook comparison. With super Audio, the DAC1 does not sound as good. Maybe one day these engineers will do an outboard SACD DAC. For the variable output, it actually sounded better into my amp than the LS3 preamp from Audio Research I have. Bob Katz actually claims it is very, very close to his Weiss DAC, a swiss-made $6-8K external DAC.

It really is a steal. I am putting some purchases on hold for this one.

 

[John Royster]

Arghhh..

Darn you Lee. I don't want another device in my music chain nor do I want to spend money.

must....not...puchase......restrain temptation.

 

[Craig_Kg]

I never denied that.

Aww c'mon Lee. Didn't you catch the smilie?
Do you know if they sell direct or only through their dealers? I'm tempted to take a punt on this one.

There's some interesting discussion on jitter on the benchmark site too (though it's obviously slanted).

[edit] - I found a local importer!

 

[KeithH]

Lee, thanks for the info. So from their web site, am I to assume that the DAC1 upsamples redbook CD to 24/96? If so, it looks like you can't turn upsampling on and off. Also, how many digital inputs does it have? Many external DACs have just one input, and I would want to run one with two components ('C555ES and '777ES).

I don't suppose you have compared the DAC1 to the Musical Fidelity A324, have you? I know you were impressed with the A324 awhile back.

 

[Craig_Kg]

It has a switch for XLR, toslink or coax input selection. Since it claims to be jitter proof, you should be able to use any of them without any difference so you can have 3 digital devices .

 

[Lee Scoggins]

I don't suppose you have compared the DAC1 to the Musical Fidelity A324, have you? I know you were impressed with the A324 awhile back.

Great question Keith, I prefer the DAC1 sound based on my experience with the A3 24. It was closer to the sound of the Sony 777 but still an improvement. The DAC1 was a bigger improvement IMHO so I'm going with that one.

 

[Adam_Reiter]

Lee, have you ever considered having your 777es sent to Dan Wright to have it modded? Might be something for you to check into. Dan has a few mods for the 777es and SCD-1. I hear Dan can do some wonderous things with his mods.

modwright.com

 

[KeithH]

Lee,

Thanks. The DAC1 sounds like a killer piece. Of course, if I were to buy one, then I could really determine if it sounds like a killer piece.


Craig,

Thanks. I couldn't use the XLR input. It's too bad it doesn't have two coaxial digital inputs. Oh well. I could go with the optical and coaxial with the 'C555ES and '777ES.


Adam,

Fair point. However, I would try the DAC1 for $850 before shipping a 55-lb. player across the country to have mods done that would void the warranty. That's just me.