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Articles and Reviews
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Benchmark
DAC-1
I can’t say I was blown away, but that was because I was getting back into audio and had no chance to reference the sound to anything else. Afterwards, I looked further into the DAC-1 to see what the hype was all about. Turns out that the DAC-1 is a supposed little gem that’s gotten a large amount of buzz in not only the pro recording industry, but also by audiophiles. So much so that Stereophile magazine lavished the DAC-1 with an Editor’s Choice award in 2004. Other reviews have also been full of praise for the DAC-1, so it became time to see if I could seriously consider it for my system. In one very compact package, the DAC-1 offers a dual-jack headphone amp, a 24 bit-192 KHz DAC, and the ability to act as a pre-amp. That’s three birds with one stone, a pretty killer deal for the US $1000 price tag. I was very intrigued, not so much about the headphone amp, since I already have one (or two, or three), but for the DAC and pre-amp capabilities. Since I’ve simplified my hi-fi down to a single source, I don’t need a full-featured pre-amp anymore and as good as my Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 is, I decided that I wasn’t much of a vacuum tube person. I like solid-state convenience and l like the ability to leave a component on all the time without worry about heat and wear on an output device (actually, I’m kind of neurotic about leaving my gear on all the time except on very hot summer days). For a time it appeared that the DAC-1 was the only choice for a convenient all-in-one component. Then a friend led me onto the Apogee Mini DAC, which offered similar functionality and convenience for about the same money (actually a bit more money). The Mini DAC even bettered the DAC-1 in offering a USB option so that one could connect the Mini DAC directly to a computer and employ USB’s asynchronous connection. Don’t ask me what that means because I haven’t a clue beyond it possibly affecting jitter in the bit stream. I would note though that because both the DAC-1 and Mini DAC re-clock the digital data internally, synchronous or asynchronous, some people suggest that it makes no difference what the source of the bit stream is. Synchronous and asynchronous may also have to do with how the bit stream is treated by the DAC, with synchronous ones not altering the bits by way of upsampling. With two products offering what I was seeking it came down to trying to determine which one would serve me best for my particular system. It’s rather difficult to try and judge two products that you can’t find in one place, let alone even listen to, so it came to surfing for reviews and trying to get a sense of what each DAC offered. (the Grace m902 didn’t come to my attention until after I had ordered the DAC-1, but even so, I don’t think I would have desired to pay 75 percent more for the m902) Thanks to Head-Fi.org, I was able to get a general sense of what the DAC-1 and Mini DAC would sound like. Thank goodness for those people who were as curious as me and willing to buy both at the same time to see which would work and which would not. I’m not so flush and willing to spend my money in such a fashion.
In less verbose terms, something was eating at me in terms of the presentation, but I just didn’t know what it was. I had a brief session with a glorious YBA Integre amp in my system and I found that indeed, my suspicions were correct, my system was a bit veiled compared to it being powered by the YBA. I surmised that it was the pre-amp with an aging tube pulling the veil over my ears.
Once finances were in place, I placed an order with Oakwood Broadcast in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Before ordering, I was so certain of the DAC-1 as my preference I even bought some Wirewold Equinox cables terminated with balanced XLR connectors in preparation to run the DAC-1 direct to my Classe amp in balanced mode.
The Benchmark DAC-1 The DAC-1 is a professional piece of kit meant for use by recording engineers. Its small form factor and rack mount faceplate reveal those professional orientations. Size wise, it’s similar to that of a computer router and while it does have some mass, it’s still easily handled by one hand.
The front of the DAC-1 is clean and simple. A toggle switch allows one to select through the different types of digital inputs, such as Toslink, XLR, and BNC. Coaxial input is available via an included adapter to be used over the BNC input. Benchmark also includes two fuses in the same plastic bag as the BNC/coaxial adapter. Two headphone jacks and stepped volume knob round out the front. There is no power switch other than plugging or unplugging the power cord. Many people make a big deal about having stepped attenuators for a volume control, but while they may achieve a bit better sound quality compared to continuously variable volume controls, sometimes the steps between volume settings can be so large that one is faced with too low to too loud in just one step. The DAC-1 has a very fine steps and I found that I could even set the volume knob in-between steps with it slipping one way or the other.
The rear of the DAC-1 offers a good complement of connection options. For inputs, they are:
For outputs:
A toggle switch is found between the RCA and XLR outputs for either Calibrated or Variable volume control. If you are going to use the DAC-1 as strictly a source component then you would set the toggle for calibrated so that there is always full output with the volume control only adjusting headphone jack output. Variable is to allow the front volume knob to control the sound level for RCA or XLR outputs, but it still controls your headphone jack output too. So, in order to use the DAC as a private headphone amp while it’s being used as pre-amp, you need to turn the power amp off, otherwise you’ll still get speaker output. A standard three-prong IEC type power connection rounds out the rear panel. The use of the ubiquitous IEC power connection allows tweakers to try all sundry types of power cords to extract a little bit more refinement from the DAC-1. The DAC-1 otherwise comes with a serviceable and standard but not overly impressive power cord. However, I’ve heard that the DAC-1 is built in such a way and to such a standard that the use of an exotic power cord may not produce any meaningful difference. Initial Listening Sessions It was Christmas in late spring for me once the DAC-1 arrived. I had hoped to receive it in time to use at a recent local headphone meet at Simon Fraser University, and while it did arrive just in time on Friday morning for the Saturday meet, the courier dropped it off at my workplace’s loading bay instead directly to the floor I specified. The loading bay guys would normally deliver packages the same day, but for whatever reason they ignored mine and it was left there over the weekend and I didn’t get the DAC-1 until Monday afternoon. Needless to say I was not amused with such lax delivery standards, especially since my workplace is the anchor tenant in the office tower. The following diary, are comments written very quickly after the session and are the immediate thoughts I had at the time. As the sessions and days progressed, you’ll find some of my comments to be somewhat contradictory, but follow through my madness to the summary at the end J Day
1
Several hours later I came back in to see how things were and do a quick first impression of the sound. The DAC-1 was lukewarm to the touch when I put my hand on the top cover. I was using a Chesky recording of the Connecticut Early Music Festival’s rendition of Vivaldi’s the Four Seasons for burning in the DAC-1. I selected my favorite concerto from the Four Seasons, Winter, for the first listen.
What I heard was a more laid back presentation of the music via the DAC-1 with an additional benefit of a larger soundstage. The Arcam direct through the Classic amp was more forward with less ambient air around the instruments. The DAC-1 also seemed to provide a meaningful extension in the bass region while being tighter and better defined at the same time. This is too preliminary to draw any conclusions because I don’t know whether it’s the CD player or the Classic amp, or both together, affecting the sound. I had some nervousness about how well the DAC-1 would be with the HD580s and Zu Mobius cable, as my reading of various reviews and user reports led me to believe that I’d receive a much brighter tonality. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the sonics in this early going. Day
2 I listened to a variety of music as my mood dictated. The general impression I got was leaner and faster than when I was running the Arcam into the Sonic Frontiers pre-amp. I had half-expected the DAC-1 to lean towards being ruthlessly revealing, but I found the sonics to be without harshness, which I attribute to my speakers helping things out with their soft dome tweeters. Curiously, with some music, I thought I was hearing a cupped-hands-around-the-mouth kind of sound from some male vocals, specifically on Loreena McKennit’s Elemental CD; track 6 Carrighfergus, sung by Cedric Smith. Through the old system, there is richness and depth to Smith’s voice, but through the DAC-1, I felt the singing to be bit lean and hollow. Moving onto Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game from Heart Shaped World, I found a disconnect between Isaac’s heavily echoed voice to the instruments recorded without as much as echo. It was kind of weird, a discombobulating of sorts, but then we have to remember that this is a studio recorded album where it’s quite common for the music tracks to be recorded first, followed by vocals. The DAC-1 certainly seems to be a what you hear is what you get kind of device, if not ruthlessly revealing then at least very honest. Popping in the live Eagles CD was quite a treat though. Of course I spun up Hotel California and in between my speakers, I had all of the guitar-playing members lined up going through their mini solos. Bass impact was not only heard, but also felt, which always surprises me given how small my speakers are. I notice the centered imaging isn’t quite as precise as I wanted and I move the left speaker forward by an inch and voila, very defined center imaging. Day
3 I keep noticing things in the tunes that I hadn’t before. The DAC-1 allows all the little details to come out, which is no surprise since it’s a professional device that’s meant to reveal what’s in the mix. I’m wondering if this is such a good thing though. Not that I consider the DAC-1 to be so ruthlessly revealing that you can’t listen to it, but it seems a very matter of fact presentation of the music, i.e. where’s the soul? Up to this point, I had the speakers toed in to face me directly, but in the past when I had the space, I had found that my Dynaudio speakers only needed a modest toe-in and not directly at me for best the soundstage. With the DAC-1, I seem to be getting headphone sound writ large, which is to say that the soundstage was fairly tight within the speaker boundaries.
Initial session holds some promise, but I’m called away to help put the kids to bed and a looming thunder and lightning storm has me shut down the entire system for safe measure. Before shutting things down and leaving the office, I toe out the speakers and I get some more soundstage space back and I also feel that I’m getting a more relaxed sound through the pre-amp. We’ll see if this combination of tube pre-amp and less toe-in for the speakers finally results in the kind of rich, mellow yet detailed sound that I desire. Thoughts of the DAC-1 still needing more hours of burn-in come to mind and that I should leave it cooking for a few more days before forming any final conclusions. Day
4 Benchmark DAC-1 versus Headsave Classic Listening to music that are either recorded very well, or have ambience to them revealed that the DAC-1 has a smoother and more laidback presentation than the Classic amp, just as I found on Day 1. There is a sense of air around the singer or instruments that is either lacking or less apparent through the Classic. High frequency sibilance in the sss’es are less harsh and overall less hardness with the DAC-1. Background details become more prominent with the DAC-1. Listening again to Carrighfergus from Loreena McKennitt’s Elemental revealed all of these differences and ultimately, the DAC-1 takes the edge off of the presentation that the Headsave has and allows one to enjoy the music more for a longer period of time. It’s not to say that the Classic is bad, not at all, but to my ears, the DAC-1 is a better headphone amp for my Sennheiser HD580/Zu Mobius combination. However, I’m thinking that some super smooth cans like the HD600 could work really well with the Classic. I really wished I had my ordered HD650’s available now. Moving onto the Academy of Ancient Music, directed by Andrew Manze and featuring Rachel Podger for JS Bach’s Concerto in D Minor Vivace, the DAC-1 gave a better sense of separation between the two engaging violin players. This recording can sound a bit congealed in some systems that don’t have good resolving power and so it was with the Classic amp not quite able to separate the instruments as well as the DAC-1. Moving onto some totally different music, both amps were in your face with fare such as House of Pain’s Jump Around, the Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary, and Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me (I was reliving my youthful days). These paragons of mass market studio recordings had me reaching for the volume control, not to turn it up as the 1980s one-hit wonder Autograph would suggest, but to turn it down, as another 1980s one-hit wonder band would complain about, the Pursuit of Happiness. The Pursuit of Happiness’ I’m an Adult Now was most appropriate, especially the lines about noise:
Good gawd, I’m getting old! I felt like those guys in the Diet Pepsi commercials where they daydream about reliving their teenage years while being in their mid to late thirties. A large portion of my music collection are of rockers now approaching middle age; geriatric geezers still trying to fit into their tight leather pants or jeans and playing ear drum busting rock anthems. One of those old tunes, Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams, always makes me smirk because I wasn’t even alive then, not even an itch in my daddy’s pants.
After watching the movie, I couldn’t help myself and decided to unhook the DVD player from the TV and move it into the office. I hook up my Sony DVD player to the Sonic Frontiers pre-amp, along with the Arcam’s analog outs, and the DAC-1 analog outs. I want to compare the differences between three different digital sources. The Arcam is a design that’s about 15 years old, the Sony is about a year old, and the DAC-1 design is a couple of years old, but the original DAC-1 used a 24/96 DAC chip, whereas the current one I have uses a 24/192 DAC. I’m using the Headsave Classic, fed from the tape out jacks of the pre-amp as my headamp. I compare the Sony to the Arcam first and I’m struck by just how similar these two players are. Quick initial impressions are that the Sony is a bit more laidback and smoother sounding. Both seem to extract the same level of detail and frankly I enjoyed both presentations through the Classic/HD580/Mobius combination. Subsequent listening confirm the first impressions and it’s rather interesting that my 13 year old Arcam player, worth about $1500 back in 1992, is still competitive to a 21st Century digital player, albeit one that’s only worth $150 from 2004 J The $1000 DAC-1 was better obviously, but I wouldn’t suggest that it is a slam-dunk kind of improvement. It’s in the subtleties that the DAC-1 improves upon the signal and provides a more laidback yet still detailed and refined presentation through the headphones. It reminded me of an audio salesperson’s comment back in the mid 1990s when he suggested not to take the source as being all important, as was the case in the days of vinyl playback. He stated that the sonic differences between the cheapest CD players versus the best was in no way reflected in the huge discrepancy in cost and now about a decade later, I know what he means. Interestingly, David Wilson, the man often blamed for sending the high-end audio industry into the path of oblivion by pricing his ware at ludicrous levels, suggests that one should spend the bulk of the hi-fi budget on speakers. A rather biased opinion given that the man sells...speakers. It's also ironic in that mass market sales people have often given the same advice. The DAC-1 is considered a killer digital upgrade and source for its US $1000 price tag and while it definitely provided a meaningful improvement in sound, again, it wasn’t a slam-dunk difference. With other reviewers comparing the DAC-1 favorably to big name, big dollar digital sources, it just makes you wonder how little you gain for the many thousands one would pay for a Levinson, or Krell. But all is not perfect in Casa Leong’s hi-fi room. As good as the DAC-1’s headamp is, there’s something nagging at me about the DAC-1 when used as pre-amp into my Classe power amp. Day
6 Before getting into the headphones, we do some speaker listening and I go through the various combinations of DAC-1 as pre-amp straight into the Classe amp using the balanced connections; then with single-ended RCA interconnects; and lastly as a source component into the Sonic Frontiers, which then feeds the Classe amp. I did not say anything of my impressions to date, so that he could form his own conclusions. Even though I was sitting off to the side with my friend sitting in the sweet spot, I was still able to detect some meaningful differences in sound from the various combinations. To cut to the chase, my friend was not impressed with the DAC-1 direct via balanced connections into the Classe. In fact, he was disturbed by how sterile the sound was and how music he knew intimately, just did not affect him as he thought it should.
I told him that I had similar thoughts about the DAC-1 being used as a pre-amp and that while all the basic were there from extended highs, to bass slam, to imaging, they were all individual components and not of a whole. A technically inclined audiophile would probably love the DAC-1 direct into a power amp and when I was listening for all those individual aspects of the DAC-1’s presentation, I was impressed. However, when I sat back and just wanted to listen to music, I was left cold, unmoved, and distressed at why something held to be so good, could leave me so concerned about my sound. With the Sonic Frontiers, I had felt that it was veiling parts of the music and that there was not enough transparency. With some music I felt that I was getting a cacophony of congealed sound, so I had high-hopes of the DAC-1 to clear this up. It did, but it went too far to the other extreme when used on its own directly into the amp. BUT, with the two together, I was finally getting what I had wanted, an improved and more refined digital source without robbing the music of its soul. It was an ear opener and my friend, whose opinion I trust and hold in high regard, confirmed all of my suspicions about what the DAC-1 was doing when connected directly to the Classe. Compared
to the Xin Super Macro 3 Comparing the Xin SM3 to the DAC-1 was initially tough because the two had much in common for tonality and soundstage presentation. I was quite happy that the DAC-1 was doing so well against a highly regarded dedicated amp and it took some back and forth listening using the right kind of music to allow the differences to come through. My first impressions were that the Xin was a touch warmer and the DAC-1 a touch faster with a bit more snap in say, violin playback. My friend agreed, but he also stated that he found the Xin to provide a little better quality overall. I have to reiterate that we’re not talking huge differences at all between the two headamps, and that we’re grasping at minute little subtleties to tell the differences between the two. I’m actually happy that the DAC-1 held its own against the highly regarded Xin, because some people have groused about the DAC-1 being built from relatively cheap parts and it did make me wonder how Benchmark was able to get so much into such a small case and provide DAC, pre-amp, and headamp capabilities for a modest price. Does it make me stop lusting after a Ray Samuels Raptor headamp? No, but it does ease the wallet busting desires for the short term J With the DAC-1 usurping the Headsave Classic, I’ll move the Classic into the bedroom and build a mini-system with it and one of my portable CD players, or the iPod. Day
7 Summary
I didn’t think of myself as a tube-boob. I didn’t like the thought of having a glorified light bulb as the heart of my sound system. A device that would slowly age and eventually die an inglorious death, all the while adding coloration to the sound, euphonics if you will. I wanted a stable device that could be left on all the time and ready to go the instant I wanted to listen to music. I thought I wanted speed and accuracy, to hear all the details from the track without coloration. After putting the DAC-1 into the system, directly connected via balanced interconnects to the Classe amp, I got speed and accuracy. I got the details coming to the fore that had previously been in the background. I got all the things that audiophiles desired and yet after the initial euphoria of having a new piece of kit in the system wore off and I moved pass the audiophile recordings to listen to the music that I actually like listening to, well, something just didn’t seem right.
I can understand that these are exactly the qualities that recording engineers need and desire for their professional work, but for us listening to the end result, do we really need such accuracy? Or rather, the quality of this kind of accuracy? For some who like the music in your face, yes, the DAC-1 will be perfectly incisive for them. And I don’t mean that to say that the DAC-1 is bright and un-listenable, far from it as I never found the DAC-1 to be harsh, just lean and dry like my childhood summers in the Kamloops desert. Using the DAC-1 as a source component into the Sonic Frontiers pre-amp gave me back the life and vitality that I wanted. I won’t say, for me, that these changes were overly dramatic, as it took a few days of listening to get a bearing on what the DAC-1 was doing and that there was a growing sense of unease about what I was hearing. For my friend, the differences were dramatic and immediate and he wondered if something was wrong with the DAC-1 to provide such sound. Ouch! I wondered if the difference was because of the tube, or if it was because I put a competent pre-amp back into the hi-fi chain? Whatever the case or cause, I only know that for long-term enjoyment, I needed the Sonic Frontiers back in the mix in which case, I could enjoy all those little details that the DAC-1 provided while still having a full bodied presentation. It made me think that goodness maybe there is something about glass bottles and how they make those electrons glow with “magic” before sending them down the pipe to the amp and speakers. I found it interesting in the DAC-1’s manual that Benchmark considers the pre-amp capabilities to be so good that even with the best pre-amps in use, that the user may hear no difference. Or in other words, the best pre-amps will not alter the DAC-1’s sound and just allow the sound to flow through. The SFL-1 is hardly going to be considered one of the best pre-amps around. It wasn’t even close back in its heyday of the mid 1990s. It’s just a good, competent pre-amp that does the job and yet, it made all the difference in the world for my friend and I. It gave me newfound respect for this component and it me wonder what the Parts ConneXion could do to upgrade this now aging pre-amp. For those that don’t know, Parts ConneXion is partly owned by Chris Johnson, one of the founders of Sonic Frontiers, who later left the company after selling it to Canadian speaker company, Paradigm. Parts ConneXion has on staff, a number of those original Sonic Frontiers staff to modify, upgrade, and service the various Sonic Frontiers and Anthem gear from the glory days of the now defunct company. With the Sonic Frontiers back in the kit, I can easily connect a good headamp to the pre-amp’s tape-put connections, because while the DAC-1’s headamp is good, it’s not reference quality good in the way that the best Meier and Headroom amps are reference quality – not that I’ve heard the best Meier or Headroom amps, just going by comments and reviews I’ve read. Anyway, getting back to the DAC-1’s sound when used as a pre-amp, it has all the individual components that some listeners will desire, but there wasn’t anything to bind it all together for a compelling listening session. One does not just listen for details, or high frequency extension, or bass slam, or imaging, etc. One listens to music and the better components do all of the individual aspects of music very well, but still bind it all together.
It’s kind of like dark matter, the theoretical invisible matter in the universe that provides it with enough mass to keep the galaxies spreading out. Without dark matter, the galaxies would contract and create a reversal of the Big Bang. It’s mind boggling that with billions of galaxies in the universe, each with billions of stars in them, that there isn’t enough matter to prevent a gravitational contraction, but something out there is providing that cohesive force that gives us our current universe, almost like the Force from Star Wars J The audio equivalent of dark matter is what I feel is missing from the DAC-1 used on its own as a pre-amp and maybe even as a source component if used in the wrong hi-fi system. Without the audio dark matter, sooner or later, I’m going to get into a funk and think my whole system is off and this will compel me to spiral further into an upgrade path that isn’t necessary. I was actually already in a funk, because as I mentioned earlier, I felt that there was some veiling of the music with my original rig sans DAC-1. This funk led me to the DAC-1 as a way to remedy that veiling, which it does, but it has to be with the pre-amp in the chain. Thus, my conclusion about the DAC-1 is ambivalent. As a DAC, it does provide modest, but meaningful improvements in upgrading the sound of my old CD player. The upgrade is not as significant as I had hoped given the number of years separating the Arcam and the DAC-1 and it does make me wonder if I might have been just as happy getting a $1000 CD player instead. Used as a headphone amp it holds its own against dedicated units that are highly regarded, such as the Xin Super Macro 3, and betters my budget conscious Headsave Classic amp. As a pre-amp, I suggest not going here unless your system is lop-sided towards warmth and you need to balance it out, think old school tube gear. On its own, in a very simplified system that is near, or is, neutral, the DAC-1 is just too matter of fact and takes away from the essence of the music. The body may be there, but the soul isn’t and if the music isn’t moving you to listen some more then there is no point in being a music lover. Thus, and as always, it comes down to system matching to see if the DAC-1 can fit in with yours. Based on my experience, I can already surmise that my friend with the YBA Integre amp, is probably not going to be taken with a Benchmark DAC-1 in his system. However, as Meatloaf sang, two out of three ain’t bad… Link to Benchmark Media Systems Inc. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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I
first heard of the Benchmark DAC-1 through a coworker who was waxing
poetically about this pro audio sound accessory. I later got to
listen to music through headphones connected to the DAC-1 at the
same coworker's headphone meet for local enthusiasts.
Before
going further, let me go into an aside and describe my own hi-fi
briefly. Ancient Arcam CD player, Sonic Frontiers pre-amp, Classe
power amp, and Dynaudio speakers, all combine to give me a pretty
smooth sounding system. It’s free from top-end glare and I can sit
back and listen for long sessions without fatigue. Sometimes I wonder
if maybe it’s too smooth and lacking in life and could use a jolt
from an equipment change. Not to say I want more detail because
I believed I get them, just a bit more “jam” as a friend of mine
would say. 
With
that in mind and reading about how the Apogee Mini DAC is dark in
character and how the smooth sounding Sennheiser HD650 headphones
aren’t a great match for them, I figured that Mini DAC would be
too much of a good thing for my hi-fi and choice of headphones.
Thus it was that the Benchmark DAC-1 came to beckon like Abba, come
take a chance on me.
The
DAC-1 is a two-channel device offering digital up-sampling to 24
bit/192 KHz digital-to-analog conversion. It’s a relatively affordable
way to bring an old CD player up to 21st Century standards.
But relatively affordable is rather tenuous to discuss because there
are $100 DVD/CD players offering 24/96 DACs, which was unheard of
less than ten-years ago.
I
listened through headphones only during this trial, using the HD580
with 
I
connected the DAC-1 direct to the Classe power amp leaving the Sonic
Frontiers pre-amp out. The sound reminded me of what the YBA Integre
offered in my system, but with deeper and more authoritative bass
extension. It’s very trite to say this, but I believe the DAC-1
is finally allowing me to hear what my Classe CA200 can actually
offer without tube euphonics getting in the way. It seemed like
a promising start for the DAC-1.
I’m
starting to wonder about how the DAC-1 signal would sound like if
run through the Sonic Frontiers pre-amp. Would the tube provide
a bit more flesh and body to the presentation? Would the DAC-1 remove
the veil that I was hearing in the past? No way to answer except
to try it out.
I
come back home from work and power up all the components now that
thunder and lightning are a distant memory. I leave it to warm up
and burn some more hours on the DAC-1. Tonight’s session is with
headphones to get a sense of differences between the DAC-1 versus
the Headsave. I connect the 
Time
to end the listening session and wallow in my advancing years. I
decide to enter fantasy land and watch the movie Van Helsing, but
instead of using the TV’s speakers and disturbing the household
late at night, I connect the 
While
things improved when I switched out the Wireworld Equinox XLR terminated
cables for some good, but no-name RCA interconnects, things did
not become settled and meet his expectations until I put the Sonic
Frontiers SFL-1 back into the mix (using the same no-name cables
to connect to the power amp). Then he proclaimed that the music
had its life back and he could sit back and enjoy it.
I
was quite curious as to how well the DAC-1’s headphone amp would
compare to the Xin jewel. As already mentioned, comparisons to my
Headsave Classic revealed that the DAC-1 is a better headamp.
It’s
ironic that I got turned onto the DAC-1 as way to get away from
a tube pre-amp, only to find myself returning to the tube pre-amp
to ameliorate certain qualities of the DAC-1 sound.
The
flesh and body had been stripped away from the texture and vocals
of the music. It was all there, but it was skeletal in its diminishment.
The muse was gone and I got a clinically correct rendition of the
music, i.e. it was sterile.
