Thiel Owners

@tomthiel A friend of mine who owns the DAC3B told me that it is thin on the bottom. He is a musician and knows more than me on how instruments and voices should sound. I also own the DAC3B and like the sound, it is clear, powerful,  and fatigue free for me. I can see why people think it does not have a rich thick sound.

My Gustard X26 Pro was preferred by my friend over the DAC3B. He says it has the bottom that the DAC3B does not have. I like both DACs. I tend to listen to the DAC3B with my more warmer gear, such as KRELL which also has a lot of bass.

The Gustard is $1500 and a bit lower in cost to the DAC3B. 

I have no experience with the Benchmark DAC.  I recently purchased an Aqua La Voce S3 for my near field system and love it.  The La Voce S3 is the "entry level" DAC in the Aqua line.  This review compares it to the Benchmark - http://v2.stereotimes.com/post/aqua-acoustic-quality-la-voce-s3-discrete-dac/  If nothing else, the Aqua DAC is a lot easier on the eyes.

While there are arguments to be made for either separate transports and DAC’s, or all in one players, but ultimately I think that all in one players with input capabilities tend to be the value leaders. Digital products tend to hold their value much less than other audio gear, and IME are the products that need replacement the most often, Let the buyer beware. As has already been noted few separate DAC’s are capable of SACD playback.
As for the Benchmark DACs; while I realize that a DAC is more than the sum of it’s parts, I find it irksome that Benchmark chooses to cheap out and use the lesser Sabre chips when much less expensive DACs use the the top of the line Sabre chips.

Thank you all for your thoughts on DACs. I've read some reviews on your selections and they sound like very solid buys. This helps me put things in perspective. I'll be using the Benchmark DAC3-B for my and my collaborators' work, but learning who's who in today's marketplace helps me find my bearings.

Tomorrow I drive to Virginia to meet with Bill Thalmann of Music Technologies, pick up my Sony SCD-1 (CD only working) and drop off my Classé gear for optimization work. Back home by Monday night.

@unsound --

As for the Benchmark DACs; while I realize that a DAC is more than the sum of it’s parts, I find it irksome that Benchmark chooses to cheap out and use the lesser Sabre chips when much less expensive DACs use the the top of the line Sabre chips.

Hmm .. do I sense a modding opportunity here?