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The Benchmark DAC3 HGC has perhaps the most comprehensive manual we’ve ever seen. This isn’t going to be nearly as boring as it sounds, we promise. In this case, we’re going to make an exception, and we’re going to do that because of one particular accessory: the manual. We don’t normally start off this part of the review by talking about the accessories that come with a piece of equipment, or the box it comes in.

The back side of the DAC3, with its huge range of inputs | The Master Switch Design: The Manual (Yes, The Manual)

For the most part, the DAC3 excels, putting out audio quality that more than justifies its price point. This is a little bit of a shame, but it’s a minor point. While it does take it, it only takes it up to DSD64, meaning anybody after super high resolution audio is probably going to have to look elsewhere. If we had one criticism, it’s that we wish it handled DSD audio better. The DAC3 also has nifty features like a Home Theater Bypass mode, which lets the DAC3 drive the front left and front right speakers of a surround system for stereo recordings, which works very well indeed. Certainly, in this price range, it’s among the best currently available. As far as we’re concerned, it comes as close to flawless sound quality as we’ve ever heard.

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We tried out with a variety of speakers and headphones, including our standard tester cans, the Beyerdynamic Amiron Home ( full review here) and it didn’t put a foot wrong. But in terms of sheer audio brilliance, there is very little in this price range that can beat it. It’s definitely not going to satisfy anyone who wants a lush, deep tube sound, that’s for sure. No matter what we tried, the DAC3 never missed a beat. It got to the point that we were throwing different styles and genres at it, just to see if we could get it to falter. The design and build quality are super-solid | The Master SwitchĪnd again, everything was just crystal clear, with no distortion whatsoever. It worked well in all genres, but particularly excelled at things like heavy metal, offering mids and highs that really allowed the guitars to bite. And it had a soundstage about as wide, too. Audiophiles talk about blackness, which is in an oblique way of referring to the noise level present when no audio is actually playing: the more silent it is, the more black – and therefore better – it is seen to be. That HGC tech preserved the dynamics beautifully, really allowing us to appreciate things like drum rolls and bass drops. We genuinely felt like we were hearing every single note like it was meant to be heard, with almost no coloration or distortion. What grabbed us, more than anything else, was the clarity and realism. Whether we were using it as a preamp, a headphone amp, or a straight DAC, it was nothing but outstanding. There is an absolutely staggering amount of high-level technology packed into the tiny black box, and what it amounts to is this: glorious noise.

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Add the HGC to a SABRE Pro conversion system, a fine-tuned jitter attenuation system which helps preserve the clarity of the audio, a high-headroom DSP, a harmonic compensation system, a.look, we could do this all day. Without going into the exact nature of the technology behind this, which can be read in full and excruciating detail on the Benchmark website, it uses things like passive attenuators and analogue and digital gain controls to really fine-tune the dynamics of the sound, preserving and presenting them in the best possible light. The DAC3 offers genuinely brilliant audio | The Master Switch Chief among these is the Hybrid Gain Control - the HGC in the name. What the DAC3 provides you with is a collection of individual technologies which, when brought together, create something splendid. It’s work that will be rewarded with jaw-dropping sound, but you do need to be aware going in: this is not your average piece of gear. The Benchmark DAC3 HGC – which is a combination headphone amp, Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC) and preamp - requires a ton of perseverance to get the best out of. To see how it stacks up, see our list of the best DACs. But how successful is it? In this review, we break down the DAC3 HGC’s sound, design, packaging and accessories, specs and more. The Benchmark DAC3 HGC is one of those pieces of equipment. Headphones are one thing, but getting an amplifier or a DAC that can pull double duty in both environments is very, very rare. And you’re more likely to find a calm sound engineer than you are to find a piece of equipment that crosses over into the home space. Ask a stressed-out sound engineer (is there any other kind?) what a particular piece of gear does, and you’d better be prepared for a long dissertation on routing functionality and transient dynamics.

#Benchmark brooklyn professional

Professional music studios can be confusing – even if you think you know your audio.