Quote:
Originally Posted by Runkby  when i went from listening to the speakers to the headphones on the same track i did notice that the headphones were not as clear and open sounding as the speakers were playing the exact same track... this leads me to belive that either the headphones themselves could use improvement or perhaps the amp in the benchmark is not sufficent to drive the 650's... i really do not have a clue which it is, but nonetheless the headphoens did sound amazing, but in light of how the dac made my stereo play, it leads me to wonder if adding a better headphone amp would improve the sound....
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Runkby, I am looking at buying the benchmark DAC1 in some form, probably HDR.
I have read your posts, I wondered if you/anyone else could help me?
I, like you, wondered if the HPA was sufficient for HD6x0. I researched it and found that at CES 2009 the HD800's were premiered with the benchmark DAC1 as a HPA.
"To show just how much headphone technology has improved, Sennheiser set up a demo in which listeners were able to switch between Sennheiser's former top of the line, the HD 650, and the twice as costly HD 800. Associated equipment included a Meitner CD/SACD player driving a Benchmark DAC1 USB used as a headphone amp".
Source (
Stereophile: World’s Finest Headphones?)
I thought "surely the Senn's guys know all about synergy and carefully selected the equipment for their biggest recent premier? The HD800 got rave reviews, surely it must power them to a high percentage of their potential?"
As you can see I have done a sufficient amount of research to talk myself in to buying the benchmark DAC1 and some senn hd headphones. I just wanted to ask you if you have tried the different jumper settings for the 'phones and if this helped? Or see if anyone else could offer experience on this.
from the HDR user manual
"The gain of the HPA2™ is high enough for
the most difficult headphones, but it may be
too high for some other headphones. The
HPA2™ in the DAC1 HDR features three gain
ranges to customize the output level for a
particular set of headphones. These gain
ranges are set using internal jumpers. The
jumpers reduce the input to the HPA2™ by 0,
10 or 20 dB. These jumpers are factoryinstalled
at 10 dB below full gain. Instructions
for setting the headphone gain range are
detailed in the ‘Internal Settings’ section of
this manual.
TIP: For optimal performance, the
headphone gain jumpers should be set
so that comfortable listening levels occur
when the ‘Volume Control’ is set above
the ‘11 o’clock’ position".
source (
http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/manual...anual-RevA.pdf )
I believe some other DAC1 models only have 2 HPA gain jumper settings.
Of course it may just be that the HD800/6x0s through another HPA sound much better? but just thought i would ask, prior to spending so much money in my first step on this hi-fi journey.
Thanks in advance
All the best
Ste
... i also want to compare it to the kav300cd which krell also has right now b/c that one also broke recently b/c the motor that drives the cd tray died... when connected to the cd player ill most likely end up using the analog out on the cd instead of the digital b/c the dac in the cd player is prob better... but ill know when i get it back, as i also have a digital coax out on the cd player... time will tell but for now sounds good
