Review and Measurements of Benchmark DAC3

[restorer-john]

Turns out, one of my worst inventions ever!!! Next to these sandals:

They look like Troll feet!

 

[DonH56]

They look like Troll feet!

Hmmm... The combination of your avatar and those feet is... interesting...

Reason for the shot from the waist up?

 

[Wombat]

Hmmm... The combination of your avatar and those feet is... interesting...

Reason for the shot from the waist up?

Before the ground-lift switch incident:

 

[amirm]

Reason for the shot from the waist up?

He doesn't know yet how to take a proper selfie...

 

[DonH56]

He doesn't know yet how to take a proper selfie...

I'm thinking maybe he does...

 

[Dro]

Sure. Give me one output impedance to test as otherwise, it is fair bit of work.

Did you ever get around to that?

 

[lucretius]

Sure. Give me one output impedance to test as otherwise, it is fair bit of work.

Did you ever get around to that?

+1. I'm extremely interested in the results.

 

[amirm]

I am working on it!!!

 

[amirm]

OK, I had to open the DAC3 to change the jumper from -10 dB to 0 dB on the headphone. Here are the results at 300 ohm:

We see that in high gain they are neck and neck with the RME pulling ahead just a tad in power.

And at 33 ohm:

Here, the RME goes into protection and shuts off at 1.1 watt. It has no rise in distortion at that point so it has a cleaner output compared to Benchmark which has already started to climb its distortion curve.

Overall, they are both excellently designed with the RME ADI-2 Pro slightly better at lower impedances.

 

[Dro]

Can you also test linearity?

 

[amirm]

Can you also test linearity?

For headphone output?

 

[Dro]

Yes. Considering unbalanced and balanced line out measure quit differently, it would be interesting to see how the headphone output performs.

 

[amirm]

I hear you but I have so much stuff to test that I am missing our gorgeous summer and all the outdoor tasks.

 

[etc6849]

I wonder how this will measure when fed via digital outputs from an RME AES card:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ben...fier-impressions.876705/page-17#post-14510156

PS: anyone waiting for a Benchmark DAC without a volume control should click the link above for a teaser pic from Benhcmark

I hear you but I have so much stuff to test that I am missing our gorgeous summer and all the outdoor tasks.

 

[Jimster480]

I wonder how this will measure when fed via digital outputs from an RME AES card:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ben...fier-impressions.876705/page-17#post-14510156

PS: anyone waiting for a Benchmark DAC without a volume control should click the link above for a teaser pic from Benhcmark

I wonder if its going to be based on the 9038?

 

[etc6849]

I'm not sure. In retrospect, I should have made a new thread, I just wasn't sure if this new DAC will be a DAC3 varient or a DAC4 like you allude to... I will likely keep using my DAC3 DX.

 

[Sal1950]

I wonder how this will measure when fed via digital outputs from an RME AES card:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ben...fier-impressions.876705/page-17#post-14510156

PS: anyone waiting for a Benchmark DAC without a volume control should click the link above for a teaser pic from Benhcmark

What's the deal with HeadFi getting the scoop on ASR? That one will cost you John.

 

[Sal1950]

No. This is on a 30-day loan to me and will go back to Benchmark.

So, a couple months down the road now and did any word come back to you on the first units issues?
Did Dallas get any consideration on his troubled dac?
Just thinkin, inquiring minds want to know.

 

[amirm]

So, a couple months down the road now and did any word come back to you on the first units issues?
Did Dallas get any consideration on his troubled dac?
Just thinkin, inquiring minds want to know.

They couldn't find any issues with Michael's. So it remains a mystery why it measured the way it did on my bench.

 

[derp1n]

They couldn't find any issues with Michael's. So it remains a mystery why it measured the way it did on my bench.

That is quite concerning in terms of test reproducibility.