Can you not do that? I would have thought Benchmark would sell you a face plate, but maybe it's more difficult than that?
And by the way, I think it looks much better in silver. I bought a black one because every single piece of hifi kit (if you exclude my AppleTV V1 and Mac Mini) is black. But silver looks better imho. I kindof regret not getting a silver one.
If you get in touch with Benchmark and ask them nicely, it seems this is a service they can provide for a minimal fee.
So if you are unhappy with the black DAC2, maybe get in touch with them.
I ended up buying the silver one, and it looks nicer than I thought when you see the actual hardware.
So far, I am
very impressed with the performance of it. The unit itself is absolutely silent with anything plugged in. No hiss or noise at any volume level.
It has made a big difference to how my headphones sound, and has given me a new appreciation of my music collection. I really don't see how it could get any better than this.
That being said, I can't comment on whether it's a significant improvement over other external DACs or headphone amplifiers.
Perhaps I could have bought an O2+ODAC and heard the same level of improvement, or maybe I would have gone through a huge list of DACs before settling on the DAC2-HGC,
as CybDev did.
The extra cost adds a lot of features, measurable improvements (audible or not) better build quality, reliability, and peace of mind though.
It also seems to be an "end game" product - now I never have to think about DACs, headphone amplifiers, or pre-amps again.
One thing I really appreciate about it is that the USB port is active at all times, which prevents the device disappearing from the computer when you change inputs or turn it off.
I'm using the ASIO driver on Windows with JRiver Media Center as my player of choice and there are no pops or clicks of any kind during gapless playback, or when switching sample rates. Switching between PCM and DSD is sometimes silent, but other times there is a quiet pop through the headphones. I think this is something that could be resolved via software though, as it doesn't happen consistently.
While you can hear relays clicking inside the device as you switch inputs, there are no audible pops or clicks through the headphones or analogue outputs.
However, even though it is silent in normal operation, there is a small pop when turning the unit off, and a very loud pop when turning it on with headphones connected. (also through the analogue outputs)
Benchmark have said that the reason this is so loud, is because my headphones are very sensitive - but I don't like it at all. I don't expect a $2000 piece of equipment to be doing this.
I don't know how it compares to something like the original Schiit Asgard destroying headphones - I don't have the ability to measure it.
I did look at the drivers, which don't seem to be
deforming like the K702s were when connected to the Asgard, though my headphones are rated up to 4000mW compared to the K702's 200mW maximum input power.
So it's probably fine, but I still don't like it, and I doubt that people using power amplifiers will like it either.
If the DAC is already on though, there's no sound when connecting or removing headphones, or when turning the unit on from standby - and leaving the unit in standby rather than turning it off seems to be the solution.
As I understand it, none of the DAC1 units were ever off - they only went into standby, which is why they didn't do this.
My only issue with that, is that the idle power consumption listed in the manual is
not standby power consumption. The unit is still measuring 12W at the wall for me when it's in standby, and only drops to 0.5W when I turn it
off. I wish that had been made clearer.
I have found the LEDs on the front to be surprisingly useful when setting up the DAC, so while it's not a feature I cared about, I think I would miss them if they weren't there.
It's also really interesting to me that the status LEDs seem to be based on analysis of the audio being played, rather than simply displaying what the DAC is "told" the signal is.
That said... they
are super-bright blue LEDs.
OK, the camera does exaggerate it a little. But I hate them.
I wish they were all the nice amber LEDs used for the Polarity/HT indicators, or preferably even dimmer than that.
And I would like the option to either disable the LEDs entirely, or have them turn off if there have been no changes for say 10 seconds.
But it does at least make them clearly visible in daylight, which can be a problem on other devices. I just wish I didn't have those blue LEDs in my eye-line.
General build quality and fit & finish seems good, with only a couple of minor issues: the feet aren't quite level on mine, and there are some slight spots on the knurling that are showing the metal underneath. The feet aren't really an issue for me though - as the unit is front-heavy, it sits flat anyway, and doesn't move about when I connect or disconnect headphones.
I am not sure what it is about their images that made me think this, but I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the top casing of the unit is metal - for some reason I was expecting it to be plastic.
While this is probably a limitation of the rack unit format, I do wish there was something that covered up some of the cabling at the back
similar to Linn hardware, perhaps. But that is a much larger unit, and aimed at a completely different market. Having a shell like that is probably a bad thing when rack-mounted or in many setups. I wouldn't mind paying extra for a "home theatre" shell like that though.
Having a remote control is very useful - while it's not the end of the world having to adjust volume manually with a headphone amplifier, I do use it a lot, and it will be especially convenient when used as a pre-amp rather than just a headphone amplifier. (now that my headphone setup is sorted, I will be looking at speakers next)
The build quality of the aluminium remote is excellent, but I don't like their choice of buttons - it feels like a cheap remote that has been crafted out of aluminium rather than a high-end remote, if that makes sense. So the remote feels solid, but functionally it's poor. There's no way of identifying the buttons without looking at the remote, and the action on them is awful.
Something I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone complaining about is the gain on the headphone outputs - not because they don't supply enough power, but because they supply
too much!
By default, the headphone outputs are set to -10dB, but even after opening it up and changing the jumpers to the -20dB position, there's still far more gain than I need.
I wouldn't mind a -30dB option, because I never go above 9 o'clock on the volume control, and normally between 7 and 8 for music - the manual recommends adjusting the gain so that you are above 11 o'clock for the optimal SNR. Maybe I just have really sensitive hearing.
I realize that this may seem like a lot of complaining about the device, but I am actually very happy with it - just because I am happy with someone doesn't mean it can't be
better though.
The problem is that I don't know where to begin when trying to describe how it sounds, other than it exceeding my expectations and sounding better than anything I've ever heard.
From an audio standpoint, I can't praise it enough, and I am very glad that I bought one.
