[john11f]

Hi Elias, I'm not into the technical aspect of these equipment but I own a Benchmark DAC1 Pre and was wondering which headphones did you (or the co.) think would be a good match for the headphone amp?

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nae45ro /img/forum/go_quote.gif Cool, thanks for the answers. Distance between DAC and both amp (speaker amp and headphone amp) is about 0.5m !

No problem!

You should be fine using XLR or RCA with your setup. XLR is ideal for noise performance, but for 0.5m, you shouldn't have much problem with RCA.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrith /img/forum/go_quote.gif Very interesting. Yes, this is more technical description of what I was describing...use a buffer to generate an average clock rate for a large sample of data, then base the output rate on that, thereby reducing outgoing jitter to a very small fraction of the incoming jitter without having to worry about buffer over- and under-runs. And no resampling is required. This paper is from late 2006...where is the Benchmark DAC2 that will be based on it?!?

Scrith,

We already use this topology, except that we intentionally choose to convert the sample-rate. As I mentioned in a previous post, it allows the ASRC chip to perform the critical filtering, and creates optimal conditions for the filter of the DAC chip.

In other words, we accept the -133 dB THD+N artifacts of the ASRC versus the much, much worse artifacts from filter aliasing and non-linearity.

We have no plans to modify our approach until we find a system that results in better performance. That won't change soon because the Benchmark engineers (John Siau and myself) can easily beat up the Benchmark marketing person.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadLover /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am really thinking of getting the DAC1, but if there is going to be DAC2, I guess it will be worth waiting, not?

There are no plans for a DAC2. Sorry...

Thanks,
Elias

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john11f /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Elias, I'm not into the technical aspect of these equipment but I own a Benchmark DAC1 Pre and was wondering which headphones did you (or the co.) think would be a good match for the headphone amp?

Hello John,

Finding headphones that you like is very much a personal, subjective choice.

However, John Siau and I use the Sennheiser HD650's, and we love them. The HD600's and AKG 701's are also very good.

Let me know what you find!

Thanks,
Elias

 

[Lord Chaos]

I just bought a pair of Denon AH-D7000 to use with my DAC1 USB.

I'm looking forward to this... they should arrive tomorrow.

 

[emmodad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EliasGwinn /img/forum/go_quote.gif We have no plans to modify our approach until we find a system that results in better performance. That won't change soon because the Benchmark engineers (John Siau and myself) can easily beat up the Benchmark marketing person.

hmmm... i seem to recall hearing mention of Rory taking up karate lessons...?

 

[Bostonears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Chaos /img/forum/go_quote.gif I just bought a pair of Denon AH-D7000 to use with my DAC1 USB. I'm looking forward to this... they should arrive tomorrow.

I use a Markl modded Denon AH-D2000 with my DAC1 Pre. The amp seems to be a really good match for the low 25 ohm impedance of the Denons.

By the way, I leave my phones plugged into the right jack of the DAC1 Pre all the time. When I want to listen to speakers, I just turn on the power amp. With that configuration, the phones are playing (and burning in) anytime I'm listening to music.

 

[simplystax]

Hello Elias
I have just bought the Benchmark DAC1 PRE and am using the XLR outputs to my Stax energiser and Krell amp. The Stax/Krell use true balanced designed circuits so my question is this: is the Benchmark DAC a proper balanced designed dac and what is the output level on the XLR outputs when the internal XLR jumpers are set to 0db and the rear switch is set to Calibrated mode? Hope you or anyone else can help. Thanks.

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by simplystax /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello Elias I have just bought the Benchmark DAC1 PRE and am using the XLR outputs to my Stax energiser and Krell amp. The Stax/Krell use true balanced designed circuits so my question is this: is the Benchmark DAC a proper balanced designed dac and what is the output level on the XLR outputs when the internal XLR jumpers are set to 0db and the rear switch is set to Calibrated mode? Hope you or anyone else can help. Thanks.

Hello Simplystax,

Welcome to "The Tread" (sic)!

The DAC1 PRE has a truly balanced, dual-active XLR output. The XLR outputs will have a maximum value of +24 dBu when the output mode is set to calibrated, the XLR attenuators are set to 0 dB, and the calibration potentiometers are set to the factory default. '

Feel free to ask any more questions that may help you with your system.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[HeadLover]

Hi,
I have a question as for the phones amp in the DAC1, how is it with HD650 ?
And, how balanced it?
I had amps (with DACS) that the left side was stronger than the right side

(really not nice, on low volumes in preticuler)

So, how is the amp and volume control?
And is the volume control allow a good control of it? so even at the low volume or high, I can "play" with it till I get the exact volume I want, and not to much high or low ??

 

[Quaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadLover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi, I have a question as for the phones amp in the DAC1, how is it with HD650 ? And, how balanced it? I had amps (with DACS) that the left side was stronger than the right side (really not nice, on low volumes in preticuler) So, how is the amp and volume control? And is the volume control allow a good control of it? so even at the low volume or high, I can "play" with it till I get the exact volume I want, and not to much high or low ??

regarding 650's, see a few pages back, straight from the horses mouth so to speak, from elias.

i have used sen 600's with the HPA2 (the amp in the DAC1 pre) and it drove them commandingly, as you would expect.

balanced its great, true balanced performance that i can ascertain, i used to run xlr out to my headroom balanced rig

great, non-stepped volume control, allowing very precise control over knob and volume levels.

its a very configurable item in terms of outputs and levels, anyway these are just a few words from an end user, i am sure elias can help out in a more technical way if required

this is all relating to dac1 pre not dac1

 

[HeadLover]

Yes I am talking about the PRE DAC1
But for balanced I meant that some times I had devices where the left channel of the sound was higher than the right and so on.
How is the DAC1 ?
And volume control, do I need to add gain for the HD650 or the default is good enough ?

 

[poo]

^ Default is fine, if anything (specific to the 650s) it is too loud, but I'm sure that is to allow headroom for other cans and possibilities.

I have not experienced balanced from the DAC1 in a environment quiet enough to be definitive about it (only at meets), but L & R seemed to be well balanced to my ears.

 

[GUINNE55]

From the website, it looks like the same headphone amp is in all models of the DAC1