Am currently trialing a dac 3 and head to head against my Aqua La Voce S2, I will say it is a very very close race so far indeed! Anyone considering a dac 3 should definitely give it a listen. (I also own a Schitt gungnir multibit and prefer the Aqua).
I got the DAC 3 to try because the stereophile review in the recent issue said he couldn’t hear any difference at all between the Benchmark and his 6 thousand dollar PS Audio Directstream with latest software no matter how hard he tried.
I’ve always wanted to hear what all the fuss was about with the PS dac (darko says it beats my Aqua etc) so i figured if he heard zero difference after trying really hard, this would be a cheaper way to do so:)
Preliminarily i’m very impressed. (hey if this is what a PS directstream dac sounds like i’m impressed!) Didn’t expect to like Benchmark products due to hearing about ‘brightness’ with dac 1 and my general distaste for “pure math” type design;) (i.e. if it sounds terrible to me but measures well then you’re measuring the wrong damn thing:)
But i have to say, it’s actually tonally close to the Aqua with maybe slightly more detail. Super black background. Very dynamic. Detailed but not annoyingly so. Definitely not bright by any stretch. Maybe in my system somewhat the opposite actually! It’s preamp function is really excellent as well and it’s headphone amp definitely gives my pricey rig a very close run for its money! Too close maybe.
In sum, not sure which dac i’ll keep and i thought sure I would as usual immediately prefer the Aqua. I’m even considering keeping both. That’s high praise from me. The Dac 3 so far is no joke. At least, i’m not laughing now (especially cause i might have to part with 2K for it:(
I got the DAC 3 to try because the stereophile review in the recent issue said he couldn’t hear any difference at all between the Benchmark and his 6 thousand dollar PS Audio Directstream with latest software no matter how hard he tried.
I’ve always wanted to hear what all the fuss was about with the PS dac (darko says it beats my Aqua etc) so i figured if he heard zero difference after trying really hard, this would be a cheaper way to do so:)
Preliminarily i’m very impressed. (hey if this is what a PS directstream dac sounds like i’m impressed!) Didn’t expect to like Benchmark products due to hearing about ‘brightness’ with dac 1 and my general distaste for “pure math” type design;) (i.e. if it sounds terrible to me but measures well then you’re measuring the wrong damn thing:)
But i have to say, it’s actually tonally close to the Aqua with maybe slightly more detail. Super black background. Very dynamic. Detailed but not annoyingly so. Definitely not bright by any stretch. Maybe in my system somewhat the opposite actually! It’s preamp function is really excellent as well and it’s headphone amp definitely gives my pricey rig a very close run for its money! Too close maybe.
In sum, not sure which dac i’ll keep and i thought sure I would as usual immediately prefer the Aqua. I’m even considering keeping both. That’s high praise from me. The Dac 3 so far is no joke. At least, i’m not laughing now (especially cause i might have to part with 2K for it:(