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Review and Measurements of Benchmark DAC1 USB DAC

Thomas savage

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I largely agree, but getting agreement about what measurements insure that no audible improvements are possible is the sticky wicket.
OOo, cricket reference,, suit you sir.

The crease is occupied, currently we have amir batting on the (linearity ) sticky wicket ..
 

Jimster480

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It's used price is like $400. I actually recommend this dac for spdif+headphone users. If you compare it to the topping dx7s, I suspect the jitter over spdif is better on the benchmark because of the ultralock system, and the benchmark headphone amplifier has lower output impedance.
I don't believe this has been tested.
 
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amirm

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I don't believe this has been tested.
I took a shot at this but somehow I didn't capture the actual FFT signal. Here is the data anyway:

1531499960573.png


I may have been recording this without turning on the generator. Not sure. Either way I was surprised to see all of those spikes.
 
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amirm

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To the best of my knowledge (I own the unit), the DAC1 is adaptive mode USB UAC1
Hence there are no proprietary drivers, it runs on Win with the (old) UAC1 Win driver.
I may have confused this with another DAC I was testing. :) I changed my review to reflect your comment.
 
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amirm

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It's used price is like $400.
I was referring to the USB version. I had a heck of time finding the price for it as it is a lot more rare it seems than the regular DAC1 without USB input.

Have you seen used prices for the USB version?

And I agree that including its headphone capabilities it would be a reasonable choice for that use.
 
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amirm

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Technically better at some point does not necessarily mean audibly better.
In the context of this review, Benchmark's claim to fame is objective measured performance. So "how does it sound" does not enter the equation as far as I am concerned. People buy the Benchmark products because of excellent measurements by far.
 

Jimster480

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In the context of this review, Benchmark's claim to fame is objective measured performance. So "how does it sound" does not enter the equation as far as I am concerned. People buy the Benchmark products because of excellent measurements by far.
Very true as before your measurements I believed that they would likely measure the best of anything as this is their claim to fame.
While the performance is good, I was surprised to see Topping beat it.
This means that the DAC1 is also beaten by the D50
 

svart-hvitt

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The Lynx Hilo is held in higher esteem in the pro audio world I think.

You may be right; that’s my impression too.

I believe pros value versatility, features more than audiophiles do. I think (speculate that) objective audiophiles are more oriented towards specialized boxes because they think features may lower performance. The Benchmark is a very specialized box (only apparent bonuses are volume control and headphone) compared to say RME and Lynx Hilo.
 

svart-hvitt

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Jimster480

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Yes, that’s (only) four years apart.

So it strikes me: If @amirm makes more «historical» analyses, we may conclude when the development in (digital) audio started to flat out (a bit). Dare we hypothesize that a lot happened between 2008 and 2012, but less thereafter?
Probably, as there has been a tech boom in the last 10 years especially and everything has gotten much better in terms of technology.
So I would surmise that its past 2010 especially for mobile devices.
 

mindbomb

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I may have been recording this without turning on the generator. Not sure. Either way I was surprised to see all of those spikes.

Okay, I think I was wrong about the jitter being better on the dac 1 than the dx7s, even with the caveat of choosing the legacy spdif connections (assuming the dx7s isn't horrible at it).
 

yummy

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remember folks, 99.9999987% gears that using ESS chips are enabling ASRC and the ASRC are not turn-0ff-able
 

bennetng

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Yes, that’s (only) four years apart.

So it strikes me: If @amirm makes more «historical» analyses, we may conclude when the development in (digital) audio started to flat out (a bit). Dare we hypothesize that a lot happened between 2008 and 2012, but less thereafter?
Of course Amir can test them only if the members here have those historical hardware and willing to send them to Amir for measurement.

Actually I've seen some excellent measurements even in the old Lynx Aurora and E22/44 series, but they are in RMAA format so it is not easy to correlate them with AP's measurements.

For very old stuff, I am highly interested to see the measurement of Chord DAC64 mk1.
 

DonH56

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I could send him my old ARC SP3a1... Most of the DACs have such good performance that distinguishing among whilst listening is likely to be a fool's errand. I think it would be interesting to see how some more integrated components fare, such as some of the highly-regarded AVRs and such. Many more people own them and it would be interesting to see how various manufacturers have dealt with combining all the pieces in a box without losing performance. That would require people to send units in to test, however, and I suspect Amir already has quite a backlog.

Hey Amir, the fires are mostly out, why'n't you fly out here and test my XMC-1? :)

Thinking on it, I'd chip in to help buy a PowerCube for some real amp testing...
 

PuX

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wow, I expected this DAC to have great performance in all tests given its reputation. I read in a magazine that it was even used at Abbey Road.

also, the USB version is usually sold for $300-600 on ebay. check completed listings.
 

Jimster480

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wow, I expected this DAC to have great performance in all tests given its reputation. I read in a magazine that it was even used at Abbey Road.

also, the USB version is usually sold for $300-600 on ebay. check completed listings.
Well because if it does its job well, then that's fine. Other products have exceeded it over time.
Such as the D50
 

garbulky

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From what I can see it doesn't do quite as well as the Oppo 205. Which if the Oppo is anything to go by was a poor showing (subjectively).
 

Jimster480

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From what I can see it doesn't do quite as well as the Oppo 205. Which if the Oppo is anything to go by was a poor showing (subjectively).
poor showing? I'm confused by what you are on about.... it just took the spot as the best performing unit so far?!
 

garbulky

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poor showing? I'm confused by what you are on about.... it just took the spot as the best performing unit so far?!
Well to my ears. I've had a decent bit of listening to the 205. I thought it was not very good. (No DBT done, just listening).
 
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