Very interesting thread! Especially considering that with the purchase of a new vinyl rig, "going back to the future" has been a blast, and those little silver discs, and my Wadia 861 are gathering dust. BTW, the return to vinyl was a long time coming after an over 2-decade long attempt at chasing the perfect digital grail. Sure am glad that I kept the 100s of big black discs I collected over the years!
With that said, I would like to divest myself of the Wadia -- step down in cost -- use the proceeds to purchase more LPs -- and obtain a very good, but not necessarily great digital front end.
From what Ive read, the Benchmark may fit the bill; and may for the money, even be a lateral, rather than a sonically descending move.
The other DAC that sounds interesting is the dAck especially the new version 2.0.
In any case, it would be interesting to hear of any comparisons between my Wadia and the Benchmark, and between the dAck and Benchmark.
Ive not had a lot of digital audition experience, but I have heard a Resolution Audio Opus 21 , Levinson 39, and a CEC/Wavelength DAC combo in my system. So from my prespective, comparisons between them and the dAck, and Benchmark would be relevant.
With that said, I would like to divest myself of the Wadia -- step down in cost -- use the proceeds to purchase more LPs -- and obtain a very good, but not necessarily great digital front end.
From what Ive read, the Benchmark may fit the bill; and may for the money, even be a lateral, rather than a sonically descending move.
The other DAC that sounds interesting is the dAck especially the new version 2.0.
In any case, it would be interesting to hear of any comparisons between my Wadia and the Benchmark, and between the dAck and Benchmark.
Ive not had a lot of digital audition experience, but I have heard a Resolution Audio Opus 21 , Levinson 39, and a CEC/Wavelength DAC combo in my system. So from my prespective, comparisons between them and the dAck, and Benchmark would be relevant.