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Benchmark DAC-1 vs DAC-1 HDR

The Benchmark DAC-1 has recieved stellar comments on this site. Their HDR offers additional benefits and appears to have no drawbacks in comparison (other than price). I know they switched op amps between the DAC-1 and the DAC-1 PRE and DAC-1 HDR. Has anyone found a downside between the models as one goes up the line ?
musicnoise
4est
507 posts
 
I've owned a dac 1 USB for a couple of years, and just took delivery of an HDR. Although I haven't compared them side to side, I have had them in the same system and have not noticed a difference between the two. On the other hand, the two systems couldn't be more divergent. Tannoy with vintage tubes vs Soundlab with high power solid state. Have you tried different power cords/conditioners, as they are sensitive to them?
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
If you ever find the DAC-1 sounded a little white or edgy and not as smooth as you expected, make sure you put a pair of snap-on ferrite cores on each end of all digital cables except toslink, as well as on the power cord; it is particularly important if you use USB.

Those snap-on ferrite cores are cheap and you will be surprised what a difference they make.
musicnoise OP
377 posts
 
Is anyone running a Benchmark DAC-1 output to a preamp rather than directly to an amp (i.e CDP to DAC-1 to Preamp to amp)? Even better, is anyone running it to a Mcintosh solid state preamp? If so, what attenuator setting did you use ? Additionally, what was the effect of inserting the DAC-1?
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