I now have in my system the Benchmark dac 1 usb and the Minimax dac and in my experience, there's not that much difference. I've found that adding the empirical audio offramp 3 as being the most significant gear I've had in my mac based music server.
Benchmark dac - why such diverging opinions?
I'm puzzled.
Audiophile sites and magazines continue to rave about the benchmark dac (HDR, USB, pre,...). Perfect rendition, studio quality, unbeatable value,...
Yet criticism stacks up high on many blogs. Too harsh, not musical enough,...
Why such divergence? Does its popularity make it the one one loves to hate? Are magazines just biased in their reviews? Are audiophile bloggers not good judges of quality. Are those considering buying a dac at that price having sub-par components whose imperfections the benchmark dac amplifies, while those going higher end don't consider the dac adequate vs a berkeley or weiss? Where is the catch?
I ended up buying a w4s dac. I considered the benchmark yet never had the chance to audition it.
Audiophile sites and magazines continue to rave about the benchmark dac (HDR, USB, pre,...). Perfect rendition, studio quality, unbeatable value,...
Yet criticism stacks up high on many blogs. Too harsh, not musical enough,...
Why such divergence? Does its popularity make it the one one loves to hate? Are magazines just biased in their reviews? Are audiophile bloggers not good judges of quality. Are those considering buying a dac at that price having sub-par components whose imperfections the benchmark dac amplifies, while those going higher end don't consider the dac adequate vs a berkeley or weiss? Where is the catch?
I ended up buying a w4s dac. I considered the benchmark yet never had the chance to audition it.