[anadin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Apparently you are using Vista. In that case, a lot of users prefer Kernal streaming, and I would agree with that. For 25-ohm headphones, you may want to use the lowest HPA-2 gain setting. Are you getting the DAC1 PRE or the DAC1 USB? Thanks, Elias

I will be getting the DAC1 PRE.

 

[Bostonears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matias /img/forum/go_quote.gif There is controversy. Just yesterday we tested my DAC1 USB in a system based on Dynaudio Focus 220 speakers and Krell 400ix integrated amplifier, with an Arcam transport. Switching the stock fuses to the HiFi-Tuning.com ones I've said a couple os pages before, and switching power cables from a good one to a Cardas Golden Reference, both gave clear results: wider soundstage, heavier and faster bass transients, clearer mid range (voices). But then again, there are those who don't "believe" in cables... even though there's nothing to believe, but to be heard. Cheers, Matias

Matias,
Did you independently test the fuses and the power cable, and find that each of them made the noticeable improvement on its own? Or, did you swap them both at once (which would make it impossible to distinguish which part was responsible for the sonic changes)?

 

[poo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn /img/forum/go_quote.gif It may seem that non-U.S. dealers are adding extra profit margin to the product price, but the price increase is usually a direct result of the costs of import/exporting, shipping, duties, VAT's, customs, etc. If you feel a particular dealer is charging more then the normal price + import fees, call them out on it. Ask them to break down the reasoning behind the price, item by item. You will usually find that it is, in fact, justifiable. But, in the case when it is not justifiable, simply tell them that they are losing business because of inflatted cost. Tell them that you will be telling everyone on the web that they are over priced. They may change their tune. However, I'd like to reiterate, you will typically find that the higher price is only a direct result of the cost of importing the products. In that case, you may want to contact your government and tell them that the import taxes are too high. Please, keep in touch and let me know what you find.... I'm very curious as welll...

Elias, I appreciate your response, but (for Australia at least), much of it is misguided IMO.

First, it isn't up to Benchmark's end users to tell their Government, or Benchmark's resellers how to sell Benchmark's products.

Second, At this point, most (if not all) Australian resellers of your products are selling them ilegally (unless I missed one when I was shopping around). Any reseller selling electrical products that are manufactured outside of Australia for foreign markets must apply for and have issued a C-tick authorisation specific to that retailer and product.

For Benchmark to specify that an Australian end user has no choice other than to purchase within Australia from resellers who are selling that product illegally, is possibly not in the companies' best interests...

Your only listed Australian dealer is 'Sound and Music' in Melbourne. I presume they are your designated distributor. None of the stores I approached purchase Benchmark product from them, so why should I pay those resellers a premium?

Regardless of where I purchased my DAC1 USB, Benchmark turns the same profit.

 

[tyler69]

hi there. i'm interested in trading the dac1usb for my dac1. what i'd like to know is:

does the dac1 usb wake up from standby as soon as "any" source is recognized or does it only wake up when the source is not only recognized but also selected on the front?

thanks.

p.s.: does anybody know the power consumption of the dac1usb while in standby mode?

 

[EliasGwinn]

Mazz, Poo...

Regarding the price of Benchmark products in Australia, I must admit that I have very limited knowledge about the sales-side of my company. My work here focuses on the technology and the end user. But, I will print a copy of your posts and bring it to Rory Rall, our sales manager, and to John Siau, the vice-president. I'll try to have an answer for you soon...

Regarding my advice about telling the retailer and/or government to lower their margins, I didn't mean to imply that it was your responsibility to do that. However, I am a big advocate of consumer and citizen power. I always like to remind people that their voice and opinions should be heard, because you are their bottom line.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[katalyst^]

Quote:

Originally Posted by poo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Your only listed Australian dealer is 'Sound and Music' in Melbourne. I presume they are your designated distributor. None of the stores I approached purchase Benchmark product from them, so why should I pay those resellers a premium?

A quick comparison:

The American RRP is USD 975. An individual could import the DAC1 for, say, $1050 USD. In all probability the item would be listed as having a value under $1000 AUD, and no GST would be paid. However, including GST, the total is around $1150. At prevailing exchange rates, the total cost for an individual is around $1200 AUD. AUD 1795 is listed as the RRP for the DAC1 at Sound and Music; it is a hefty 50 per cent premium.

That premium might substantially represent profit, in which case Benchmark is doing a great disservice to its true customers, for the benefit of a company the function of which is a pretentious intermediary and shopfront operator. The margin would be even greater given that Sound and Music presumably buys the units from Benchmark at below the American RRP.

I wonder whether the margin that Benchmark earns is less or more. If less, it is mildly amusing to think that Benchmark allows Sound and Music to earn a far greater margin than it does itself. If more, then this will fall on deaf ears because Benchmark and Sound and Music are happily fleecing audiophools of their money.

If the margin is substantially similar between Sound and Music and American resellers, then there is no better reason for Australian customers to pay $1795 when it could be more efficiently had for $1200 over the Internet. Australian customers are paying to cover the gross inefficiencies of Sound and Music.

 

[katalyst^]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Regarding my advice about telling the retailer and/or government to lower their margins, I didn't mean to imply that it was your responsibility to do that. However, I am a big advocate of consumer and citizen power. I always like to remind people that their voice and opinions should be heard, because you are their bottom line. Thanks, Elias

To be honest, I don't think that Sound and Music, or any other Australian reseller, would care in the slightest. That they are able to price their units from $1795-$2095 shows how effectively they are insulated from competition: there is no need or incentive to bring prices closer to the US RRP, and because US retailers cannot sell internationally, we cannot bring competitive pressure to bear by shopping elsewhere. It is a case of accept the price or find another DAC.

 

[Wavelength]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn /img/forum/go_quote.gif Summing ground connections at the jack is the same as remaining seperate until the circuit ground. That has been my arguement against the isolated ground arguement. The Sennheiser HD650's, for example, have isolated grounds that remain isolated until they are at the circuit board.

Actually not true... remember you can't think of electronics in terms of voltage. You have to think of electronics in current and voltage. For any path their will be a voltage across and also that loop will carry the current signal. look at some of the app notes for power supplies or opamps most of them will comment on both aspects and will have the return (ground) reference to the point that yields the best results.

Quote:

Are you referring to amplifiers with balanced inputs, or amplifiers with balanced headphone outputs? Because these are very different.

Elias, the Arye are totally balanced on the input and the output. They have no reference to ground. With that comes some problems especially with sub woofers and such that will reference the NEGATIVE signal to earth ground.

Take a look at their site:

ayre home

The thing to think about here is if you do make a balanced output amplifier it is in it's own sense a totally different concept than a single ended amplifier. Therefore the specifications cannot be looked at as just a double single ended amplifier but on their own merits.

Thanks
Gordon

 

[infinitesymphony]

I think Elias was only talking about balanced headphones; Ayre does not make a balanced headphone amplifier. His point was pretty clear in this statement:

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn Balanced amps will double the noise, also (amp1 noise + amp2 noise). However, balanced cables don't eliminate noise. Balanced input stages do. HEADPHONES DON'T HAVE BALANCED INPUT STAGES!!

Maybe there would be a benefit to having balanced headphones if they had dedicated input stages. Otherwise, if we're just talking about regular balanced gear (ex. active studio monitors), then I'm sure he would recommend balanced over unbalanced output.

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazz /img/forum/go_quote.gif What constitutes "high"? To my mind it's not a question of "this parameter is twice as good so it must be a preferable design", it's "this design has a set of different parameters - do those differences meet the threshold of detectability when I'm listening, or is it better than this other design with a different set of parameters"? At what level damping factor does a further reduction to half the current level make a difference I can hear (all other things being relatively equal)?

I agree!! Just because a certain parameter is twice as good, does not mean that design is better. For example, twice as much slew-rate and gain does not acheive a better design (unless the design was suffering to begin with).

However, I feel that damping factor is the most critical of parameters. A headphone driver is a mechanical device. Based on its shape, construction, and external impedances (air, head, etc), it will tend to vibrate much easier in some frequencies versus others. With mechanical loads, damping factor becomes very critical for linear frequency response.

You can see this when measuring the distortion performance of a headphone amp. If you take distortion measurements when the amp is driving a linear load (i.e., a purely resistive load), the results will not be indicative of what the amp does when driving a 'real' load (i.e., headphones). A real measurement of a headphone amp's performance is how well it measures while driving low-impedance headphones. With most headphone amps, the results will change dramatically.

The wikipedia article on damping factor is pretty simple, yet informing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mazz /img/forum/go_quote.gif And if I read the definition of damping factor correctly (no guarantees!), different headphones with the same amp will have damping factor variations of 10 or more (because their impedances vary by 10 or more). Doesn't this then have a much bigger effect then balanced vs single-ended? Should I throw away my D5000s because their impedance is only 25ohms and get HD650s (which IIRC are in the region of 300 or 600 ohms)?

YES!! You are absolutely correct. The impedance of the headphones will have as much of an affect on the damping factor as the amp. The tradeoff is usually a lower sensitivity (less efficiency). But, again, a good headphone amp won't have problems delivering enough gain.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dspargo /img/forum/go_quote.gif How would you connect to a HeadRoom Balanced Desktop Amp that has both balanced and unbalanced inputs?

Hey dspargo,

Simply connect the balanced outputs of the DAC1 to the balanced inputs of the HeadRoom (using balanced cables, of course).

Let me know if you need any more assistance...I'll be glad to help.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by anadin /img/forum/go_quote.gif I will be getting the DAC1 PRE.

Great. That means you'll have all three gain ranges available. You will probably want to use the lowest gain range, considering the low impedance of your headphones.

If you need assistance setting up the gain on your DAC1 PRE, just let me know. (It's pretty simple, but I'll be here just in case.)

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyler69 /img/forum/go_quote.gif does the dac1 usb wake up from standby as soon as "any" source is recognized or does it only wake up when the source is not only recognized but also selected on the front?

The DAC1 USB will wake up when the last selected source is recognized. In other words, the second part of your question is correct. If a signal is present on an input that is not currently selected, simply change the input selector to that input and you will be up and running.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyler69 /img/forum/go_quote.gif p.s.: does anybody know the power consumption of the dac1usb while in standby mode?

8 Watts.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Mazz, Poo, katalyst^

First of all, thank you for alerting us to the price discrepancy issue of Australian dealer pricing. I've discussed this with our sales manager and vice-president, and we are looking into it. We don't want any dealers charging unreasonable amounts for our products. We'll do our best to determine what is causing this price increase.

Something thing to keep in mind: the local dealer takes responsible for returns and warranty repairs. If you bought directly from us, it would cost $200 to ship it to us for a warranty repair. Although we enjoy a very low rate of product defects, having a local dealer can be thought of as an insurance plan.

However, we will discuss your concerns with our Australian distributor, and determine the best route to take. I'll keep you all updated as we make progress...

Thanks again for your invaluable feedback.
-Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavelength /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually not true... remember you can't think of electronics in terms of voltage. You have to think of electronics in current and voltage. For any path their will be a voltage across and also that loop will carry the current signal. look at some of the app notes for power supplies or opamps most of them will comment on both aspects and will have the return (ground) reference to the point that yields the best results.

I'm not sure what your point is here. The Sennheiser HD650's use a seperate conductor for the return path of each driver. They are not tied together until they are at the circuit board. They are isolated w/ regards to voltage and current...if that answers your question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wavelength /img/forum/go_quote.gif Elias, the Arye are totally balanced on the input and the output. They have no reference to ground. With that comes some problems especially with sub woofers and such that will reference the NEGATIVE signal to earth ground. Take a look at their site: ayre home The thing to think about here is if you do make a balanced output amplifier it is in it's own sense a totally different concept than a single ended amplifier. Therefore the specifications cannot be looked at as just a double single ended amplifier but on their own merits.

Their amplifiers are basically operating in bridged-mode. Nothing new there. In fact, most audio engineers will tell you to avoid bridged-mode unless you're desperate for power, since it will double the output impedance, distortion, noise, etc.

Please explain how balanced output amplifiers are "totally different concepts" from double single-ended amplifiers.

Thanks,
Elias