[dty]

I have a question about the benchmark dac1, If I buy the $975 version and plug it in my soundcard in my computer will I lose sound quality vses the USB version?

 

[EliasGwinn]

dty,

Without actually testing your specific soundcard, it's hard to know about the sound quality from the digital output of your soundcard. It really depends on the software associated with the soundcard. That is, some soundcards are not bit-transparent because of their drivers and other related software. Sometimes, a lack of bit-transparency is due to sample-rate conversion, truncation, dithering, and/or other DSP. Sometimes the result of this DSP is relatively benign, but sometimes it results in significant distortion.

I know that doesn't answer your question completely, but, as I said, I have no way of knowing unless I actually had the card to test.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[xp9433]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gjwaudio /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi Elias Did you ever come to a firm conclusion over the issue Thomas raised HERE ?

gjwaudio

I was of the belief and clear interpretation that the ball was very much in Thomas's court! Elias answered politely (in the extreme) as always. Elias had a very firm conclusion!

It is/was very much up to Thomas to support/prove his assertions - not the other way around.

I am sure if Thomas comes up with valid (tested/proven) technical support for his arguments we will all listen. Until then, I will trust Elias's tests and explanations thanks very much.

Frank

 

[schugh]

Just wanted to add myself to the list of people having pops/click/dropouts through USB.

I recently acquired a Stello DA220 MKII on a good used price and I just had to try it out and was going to sell my DAC1. But I like the DAC1 so much that instead of selling it, I upgraded to the USB version (thanks to the local dealer for letting me do that).

However, at the moment I am little frustrated with the dropouts etc when connected to the USB. I have a dual athlon 64 running Vista ultimate with 2 GB of RAM. Granted I have several USB devices connected to the computer so maybe all that load might be the problem. (USB Mouse, three external USB HDs etc). Hopefully I can figure out what the problem is but there are times if I am doing anything at all such as burning a DVD that the DAC1 is unusable through the usb connection because of too many dropouts or whatever.

Also I don't know if anyone else has suggested it but if not here is a suggestion. Why did Benchmark decide to use numbers for the input selector? There is enough room to put abbreviated names such as opt./coax/xlr/usb. I will eventually remember what the numbers correspond to, but I am not sure that I should have to.

Thanks,

-- Sanjay

 

[poo]

Very interested to know why these dropouts are occurring. USB devices can add load to any power supply, so it would be good to know if you have the same dropout issue with the majority of your other USB devices disconnected.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by schugh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just wanted to add myself to the list of people having pops/click/dropouts through USB.

Here's something you may want to try, from another thread:
Quote:

Originally Posted by germanium Try going to the control panel/power options & changing the profile to high performance. This stops the processor from changing multipliers all the time. This stops the stuttering of sound in Windows Vista. Windows Vista over rides the BIOS settings in this regard so even if disable this feature in the BIOS Windows Vista will still change the multiplier if left in any other mode than high performance. I Have a Core 2 Duo E6600 overclocked & this helped tremendously & stopped all audio stuttering.

 

[dmk005]

I use a Mac and have never heard a pop/dropout/click I didn't instigate

.

So perhaps this is a W-intel only issue?

david

 

[EliasGwinn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by schugh /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... at the moment I am little frustrated with the dropouts etc when connected to the USB. I have a dual athlon 64 running Vista ultimate with 2 GB of RAM. Granted I have several USB devices connected to the computer so maybe all that load might be the problem. (USB Mouse, three external USB HDs etc). Hopefully I can figure out what the problem is but there are times if I am doing anything at all such as burning a DVD that the DAC1 is unusable through the usb connection because of too many dropouts or whatever.

Sanjay,

Having several USB devices connected will often cause this problem. Please try the DAC1 USB without the other devices connected (or just the mouse) to see if the problem persists.

Thanks,
Elias

 

[schugh]

Hi Everyone, thank for the replies. I do plan to try it with everything disconnected other then the mouse and the DAC1. Just a bit busy with work these days, but as soon as I get a chance I will report back my findings. I also have a couple of notebooks and will try the DAC1 with them. Then I also have the Stello with USB and my Headroom Micro DAC and will try them under the same circumstances and see if the same problem happens with them.

infinitesymphony: I did try that trick but it does not seem to have helped me.

-- Sanjay

 

[mofonyx]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I can't seem to find it in this massive thread.

I realise that there isn't an on/off switch on the DAC1, so is it perfectly fine to leave it on all the time? Would this cause increased wear and tear of the equipment?

Thanks.

edit: Oops, I found it immediately after posting this. Accordingly it should be fine to leave it on all the time.

 

[Dead Ghost]

I'm glad that this thread wasn't lost. Very informative thread.

 

[yourmando]

I'm so happy this thread survived. Now, some questions for Elias:

• I notice that several dvd transports were tested for bit transparency, and the results were posted in the Benchmark Wiki. This is awesome, and I haven't seen systematic tests like this anywhere.
  
  DVD Transports - Benchmark
  
  It looks like most tested did not fare so well. My questions here are--could you shed some light on the testing methodology? For example, were these results only for dvd-audio sources with the copy protection flag set to off?
  
  Also, do you plan on testing the Oppo DV-980H? This the newest Oppo universal player, and they claim that this is their best audio effort to date. There is a forthcoming Oppo DV-983H player which will have the exact same audio section as the 980, so testing the 980 will kill 2 birds with one stone (the 983 is essentially a 980 with high end ABT based deinterlacing and scaling).
  
• Have you had a chance to test Mac OS X Leopard? I have recently upgraded, and it looks like everything is the same, including the Audio Midi Setup app that one must manually change to match the sample rate. Again, the Benchmark wiki has the best info I have seen anywhere with regard to actual measurements of bit transparency of different player software and OS's.

Thank you!

 

[EliasGwinn]

Hey Everyone!! Good to see we're back up and running!!

Now, getting to your questions...

Quote:

Originally Posted by yourmando /img/forum/go_quote.gif [*]I notice that several dvd transports were tested for bit transparency, and the results were posted in the Benchmark Wiki. This is awesome, and I haven't seen systematic tests like this anywhere. DVD Transports - Benchmark It looks like most tested did not fare so well. My questions here are--could you shed some light on the testing methodology? For example, were these results only for dvd-audio sources with the copy protection flag set to off? Also, do you plan on testing the Oppo DV-980H? This the newest Oppo universal player, and they claim that this is their best audio effort to date. There is a forthcoming Oppo DV-983H player which will have the exact same audio section as the 980, so testing the 980 will kill 2 birds with one stone (the 983 is essentially a 980 with high end ABT based deinterlacing and scaling).

The testing was done with a DVD-A that I burned using Minnetonka DiscWelder. I honestly do not recall seeing an option with regards to the copy-protection flag. I may go back and investigate, however. That seems promising.

We have no plans to test DVD players, but we may in the future. We are up to our eyeballs with projects, so it may be a few weeks/months.


Quote:

Originally Posted by yourmando /img/forum/go_quote.gif [*]Have you had a chance to test Mac OS X Leopard? I have recently upgraded, and it looks like everything is the same, including the Audio Midi Setup app that one must manually change to match the sample rate. Again, the Benchmark wiki has the best info I have seen anywhere with regard to actual measurements of bit transparency of different player software and OS's.

We do not have a copy of Leopard yet, so we haven't had an opportunity to see its capabilities.

However, you may note that there are some updates to the "iTunes on Mac" page of the Benchmark Audio Wiki. We have tested iTunes 7.5, and it does not look good!!! In fact, even 44/16 had horrible distortion (with AudioMIDI set to 44100). Oddly enough, only 96/24 was bit-transparent with iTunes 7.5 (with AudioMIDI set to 96000). Also, the volume control on iTunes 7.5 seems to be much better then the volume control on the previously tested version (6.2, I believe...??? It says on the Benchmark Wiki). So, the sample-rate issue is worse, but the volume control is better...double-edged sword. Soon, they'll get it right...I hope!! Maybe with Leopard...???

For all you Mac users, there is a player that plays absolutely perfectly. It is called VLC. It lacks the GUI that iTunes is very good at, but it is the best performing player, sonically. Everything works great, including the volume control. However, you still need to change the sample-rate in AudioMIDI setup. This is an issue with OSX (maybe fixed with Leopard...??? Can anyone confirm this by playing audio files with different sample rates and see if the sample-rate changes in AudioMIDI...???)

Thanks,
Elias

 

[Wavelength]

Elias,

Well first off you really don't need to fool with the Midi settings. It's best to leave these alone.

I have checked your DAC1 USB with all the settings and it does work fine on all the settings and from what I can tell on my Prism dScope III the use of Lepoard and iTunes 7.5 results in the best measurements.

I know the USB drivers in Lepoard have been extensively changed and that resulted in me delaying my ASYNC USB release. As of today the Async code for my TAS1020 dac is released and seems to work great in all os's but best in Lepoard and Vista.

I would suggest users of 7.5 iTunes to upgrade to Lepoard for the best results.

One of the best ways to test your dac would be using the Faber Acoustics testing software. There you can make test tones very easily at any Fs rate.

You can also use MAX if you want to try different Fs rate music and more easily see problem areas.

Max from sbooth.org

I did send my DAC1 USB to Microsoft concerning the bit perfect and windows. There were able to make it bit perfect in Vista out of the box. They did have to set the device configuration for 24 option for it too be bit perfect with 16 bit data for some reason. There testing for XP was what I expected and they did say any PCM USB device would have issues with the KMIXER. Though not really a problem as there are ways around that. Though we have seen that several of the ASIO drivers seem to be corrupting data for some reason.

As a suggestion to users out there from my experience Vista may not be your cup of tea but in the audio area this is really were great strides have been made. If you have a dedicated computer I would upgrade to Vista for the best and easiest sonic value.

Thanks
Gordon

 

[pwfletcher]

I recently put together the following system and have a few technical questions re the Benchmark DAC1 USB:

System:
Mac Mini (running Leopard) as the source component
-> plugged in to a two week old Benchmark DAC1 via USB
-> plugged in to a Simaudio I-7 via Nordost Quattro Fil Balanced XLR
-> driving Dynaudio Confidence C1s via Nordost SPM Speaker Wire.

Also, my CDs have been ripped using Apple Lossless.

The system sounds amazing, but I want to use the DAC1 to its fullest potential (as any good equipment tweaking obsessed audiophile would). So my question is, will there be any sonic benefit if I set the XLR attenuator jumpers to -0db as opposed to the current setting of -20db or should I leave it alone?

Thanks