Interesting responses. Thank you for your thoughts. I don't think the SE will help and to add tubes to tone down the benchmark and the edge seems going too far down the wrong road. Also to mellow the sound with cables again is like changing the tires hoping it will make up for the engine. So I am really starting to get the feeling I have to decide if I like the amp enough to get a different dac or vice versa. Pass Labs, hmm, I don't know, maybe. Thank you again.
ML 303 vs EDGE NL 10.1
iTunes into Benchmark DAC-1 usb was using a ML 383 have 'upgraded' to an EDGE NL10.1 / The upgrade is just not working. Everything that I used to love in the sound is gone. About the only improvement is more clarity in the high end but less realism and everything else is worse. Am now in the process of upgrading to the best speaker cables and interconnects I can afford but is it my ears or maybe not having an active preamp now or can the 383 at a fourth the cost be 'better' than the laser biased EDGE? What went wrong with my upgrade?