Anyone listening to 24/196?


If so, what DAC are you using? The Benchmark can intake those signals, but it downsamples them to 110. The BelCanto can't take them. The Bryston BDA-1 is one of the few non-megabuck DACs that can take 192 as an input.

Anything else under 3k?

From Bryston materials: "The CS-4398 operates in one of three oversampling modes based on the input sample rate. Single-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 50 kHz and uses a 128x oversampling ratio. Double-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 100 kHz and uses an oversampling ratio of 64x. Quad-speed mode supports input sample rates up to 200 kHz and uses an oversampling ratio of 32x."
lightminer

Showing 4 responses by kijanki

Rdyland - check out this link: www.merging.com/download/dxd_Resolution_v3.5.pdf
Lightminer - Benchmark has very high oversampling (close to a million times) and could easily output 192kHz (since it uses 24bit/192kHz DAC) but doesn't because DACs at 100kHz have lower THD than at 192kHz.
Lightminer - "1k is still a lot!" - Yes it is.

Benchmark is an upsampling DAC - it takes input data stream and reclocks it with asynchronous clock. Usampling (oversampling) ratio of 1 million times would not be possible for physical reasons (1 million * 44.1kHz = gazzillions) but input samples are redundant and only exact moment of time to output them to filter/Dac is important. Benchmark is taking statistical average of its clock to be accurate within 5ps. I have exact description of operation in chip's datasheet if you're interested.

Upsampling/oversampling in general is allowing to use gentle filters with even group delays (to allow proper summing of harmonics) - necessary to get rid of any frequency above 22.05kHz that might fold (Nyquist) into 0Hz and up. There is no resolution lost if you update at 100kHz instead of 192kHz since output DACs resolution is still 24-bit but some bandwidth is sacrificed. Benchmark probably felt that THD is little more important than the extra bandwidth.

Benchmark rejects jitter allowing to use cheap transport and cheap digital cables. It is serious DAC with 140dB S/N ratio but many people call it sterile or cold. Bel Canto DAC3 migh be warmer and according to Stereophile sounds a little better but it is 2x more expensive. I have Benchmark and like the sound plus functionality (DVD, HDTV, volume control) but my exposure to top DACs or CD players is minimal - I'm more on technical side of things.

You might find other DACs (incuding non-oversmpling) that sound better to you. I would pay less attention to technical description and more to sound you like and synergy with the rest of your system.

If you decide to buy Benchmark - get the latest USB version for $300 more. It has better output drivers and USB functionality is a plus. Avoid used - early Benchmarks had some problems (like too high output impedance on RCA outputs or cold sounding OP-Amps). Warranty is 5 years and Benchmark has free 30 day tryout/lease program. People who travel a lot take USB Benchmark with a Laptop computer and top quality headphones (Benchmark has decent two headphone amps built in) to have high-end audio on the run.