Cambridge 840c or Pioneer PD-65/Benchmark DAC 1

Mjcmt - Another issue is being independent of transport. I already had Cambridge CD player that failed (laser) and almost decided to buy used Ayre CD player but bought Benchmark and cheap DVD player as a transport instead. Benchmark has 5 years warranty and my DVD player costs $69. In addition I enjoy flexibility of this solution, as you mentioned, listening to HDTV, DVD, MP3 and practically anything that stays within 24bit/192kHz. I could buy new CODE 20bit/96kHz recording (on DVD) and play it without any change. Oppo plays even more formats - so I heard.

I don't know how reliable Cambridge is now but A3i amplifier I had once failed because of faulty assembly (i fixed it myself). It is not important that it was made in China, in my opinion, but rather that quality control was poor (mistake was easy to notice).

Beerad - 384kHz is really impressive but DACs have the lowest harmonic distortion at about 100kHz - therefore Benchmark has 192kHz DAC driven only at 110kHz for lower THD.

Beerad - I was not talking about upsampling but rather downloading rate to DAC. Benchmark is upsampling to equivalent of 1 million times oversampling (equivalent of 44GHz) making mathematical simplifications and taking statistical value of the clock accurate to 5ps. Then it goes thru filtering and is outputed to DAC only at 110KHz for lower THD instead of 192kHz the DAC and upsampler are capable of. It is not a flaw in design - it's conscious decision (read interview with Benchmark's engineer).

At this point it's difficult to say what is right. In general traditional DACs are suffering from accuracy of components and cannot go below 18 bits while sigma-delta type can go down to 24-bits but are loosing it in timing errors. Many people believe that traditional DACs without upsampling give better more organic sound. DCS uses RING DACs where resistor ladder components are shuffled randomly to minimize (after filtering) bit error and get better than 18 bits. No rights or wrongs - just sound that you prefere.

Did I understand ir right that you can connect other digital sources to your CD player - you used term "external DAC". It is very interesting feature - many people were asking about it on the forum.

Mjcmt - when you open your Benchmark check OP-amps manufacturer. If it's Philips than you can possibly change them to a little better (rounder) sounding Texas Instruments. TI symbol on the chip is often shown on the outline/map of Texas while Phillips has either words Phillips or letter "S" for Signetics (part of Phillips). Original amp was designed by Signetics and manufactured to about 2002 (early Benchmarks had them) when their factory burned down and they stopped making them. Texas Instr. bought license, redesigned die (larger) and got a little better sound. Newest DAC1-USB use LM4562 only in output stage to make lower output impedance on XLR outputs (0dB best, -20dB second best, -10dB bad). At the very beggining Benchmark made DAC1s with too high output impedance on RCA outputs.

Fruff1976 - sorry for rambling so much about Benchmark. For you buying newest version might be the safest choice if you decide to go that route. In addition they have free evaluation 30 day loaner program and 5 years warranty.
If you use XLR outputs get newer USB version for $300 more - it has better/stronger output drivers. Also try excellent Bel Canto DAC3 if you can spend $2500 (read on-line Stereophile review and comparison to Benchmark).
I use Benchmark also as a preamp since it has volume control (great simplification and savings on a pair of IC)

Mjcmt - I also enjoy DAC1 as a preamp but connected to class D amp (Rowland 102). Amp is cleaner (less brassy) than my previous integrated SS but when I connected DAC1 first time I had impression that there are missing instruments on recordings I know very well. Everything is so clean and transparent that it takes time to get used to (learn to listen?). People often perceive sound with a little bit of distortion as more lively (like distorted guitar vs. clean guitar) and call DAC1's sound sterile or uninvolving. I think that sound is very dynamic with great bass control and great transparency/clarity.

Many people don't like well defined bass or even clean sound - they like sound they got used to and there is nothing wrong with it. I even found opinion that instruments should sound together (sound blob) and not separately.

I was a little bit concerned connecting non-forgiving (neutral) DAC to non-forgiving amp (class D) but Rowland while having bright speakers but Rowland tech guy explained that sybillants are more function of distortion than energy in high frequencies (and he was right).

I wondered what makes DAC1 so much better than my old Cambridge CD4SE - one of the better Cambridge CD players.
It could be jitter removal, good components, smart clean design (-140dB S/N) or all of the above.

Mjcmt - DAC1 with tube gear is a great combination according to many but I'm not in the "warm sound camp". Class D offers a lot for the money. My Rowland is very basic but there is a lot of great ones. Rowland Continuum integrated is very good bargain since it is equivalent of CAPRI preamp combined with high power Icepowers (1kW/4 ohm - I think) and power factor correction unit. Nuforce has mixed reviews - some people like it for its speed and clarity others prefere Icepower.