It's only based on what I read in his describtion of the mods.
If you read carefully, the turbo mod does not include replacement of the clock and actualy includes removing of some parts without any replacement.
I never tried Steve modified equipment though, the prices seem ridiculous to anybody who can do those mods himself
If you read carefully, the turbo mod does not include replacement of the clock and actualy includes removing of some parts without any replacement.
I never tried Steve modified equipment though, the prices seem ridiculous to anybody who can do those mods himself
11 if you count in the ones feeding the BUF chips for phones, all double chips.
Yes the mods must be paying off but the price for someone that can do it himself like us here is just to lough with.
But imagine you are a lawyer or doc, had spent a fortune on that $20K Krell cdp trans & dac 5 yrs before, someone brings a well run in DAC1, kills your system on the spot and tells you that with $1000 more you can kill any other dac1, proves it and then you put your Krell on adds get $8K and all you need more is an $100 DVD transport. Isnt the moder a bargain god then?
We are not potentional customers. We are not 'customers' period. we are DIYers! And in this particular thread, you gentlemen are leading global forumists. So live and let live.
Yes the mods must be paying off but the price for someone that can do it himself like us here is just to lough with.
But imagine you are a lawyer or doc, had spent a fortune on that $20K Krell cdp trans & dac 5 yrs before, someone brings a well run in DAC1, kills your system on the spot and tells you that with $1000 more you can kill any other dac1, proves it and then you put your Krell on adds get $8K and all you need more is an $100 DVD transport. Isnt the moder a bargain god then?
We are not potentional customers. We are not 'customers' period. we are DIYers! And in this particular thread, you gentlemen are leading global forumists. So live and let live.
Many official answers about the DAC1
I found a very informative thread about the same questions of possibly upgrading the DAC1. The good part is that in page 5 John Siau, director of engineering for Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. joins in and answers many things about the concept and the parts selection, the psu, layout, tests, output imp etc. There are also comparative sonic impressions by some members:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78848
Dorkus:
Who's your author? is there a link for that review?
I found a very informative thread about the same questions of possibly upgrading the DAC1. The good part is that in page 5 John Siau, director of engineering for Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. joins in and answers many things about the concept and the parts selection, the psu, layout, tests, output imp etc. There are also comparative sonic impressions by some members:
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78848
Dorkus:
Who's your author? is there a link for that review?
I checked through my e-mails and here are some comments I received from the person from whom I bought the Benchmark. His remarks are pretty much right to the point. Since he knew I'm buying the DAC for evaluation purpose only, he was trying for rather honest opinion.
Give the DAC1 some time to warm up before evaluating and remember it is not yet broken in. I agree that the parts quality is only average but decent. The designer at Benchmark I spoke with claimed they were trying to cater to the pro market and all that entails ; ) The part that most want to change are the op-amps in the output stage as they are only marginal quality. The designer advised against this as he said they had tried a few other (more expensive and better specified) chips and were happiest with the current chipset. He found he was always giving something up to gain somewhere else.
I didn't find the DAC1 to be lacking in detail (especially midrange) or clarity through the headphone output and even less so through the XLR outputs. I found the DAC1 sound in general to be moderately dynamic and quite detailed but lacking in soundstage size. It seemed to me very matter of fact in it's delivery and a little thin in the bass end. What headphone cable are you using with your 650s? I also didn't get the best of this DAC until I used a good filtering power cord. Then the background was quieter and more relaxed. The clarity also increased. I found the Cardas Golden Reference power cord to work particularly well with the DAC1.
Surely I understand that it's only $1000 and at that price it definitely delivers.
I found it lacking in detail only through the headphones, but so far I'm using stock cable, although I plan to upgrade to Cardas. Is there any better recommendation for Senns? When I compare the sound of both headphones to what I hear from speakers, the Senns seem to be much closer in tonality (than Grado).
I also found that with Benchmark, I prefer single ended output, it seems cleaner than the balanced, although I used different cables in both cases (Silver Streak for single ended, Goertz silver for balanced). I'm using Cardas Golden Reference between preamp and amp, and I really like that IC.
So far my impressions are that Benchmark (probably like most other conventional DACs) is very good at portraying the music in a sence that it describes the musical picture pretty well, however, it lacks in keeping you in emotional contact with the performance. I'm missing here a bit of accoustic space, the gradation of tones and intonations of vocals. The highs are fine, but somewhat lacking in resolution the way you hear it from a analog disk.
Congrats on the other new DAC. I would hope the 360s holds up very well. It think you will find the ML 360s to be a better "music maker" than the DAC1. Let me know your impressions. I found the DAC portion of the Benchmark to be up to the task with every piece I compared it to. Where it needed help was in the analog section. It just isn't as effortless as it could be or dynamic. Also the soundstage is just too constricted for my taste. That is why I prefer my Vecteur L-4.2 and CEC HD53 V8.0 to the Vecteur as a transport and the DAC1 into my CEC balanced. The DAC1 is only a grand US after all so I don't think it was originally designed to compete with the multi kilo buck pieces out there. The fact that it does hold its own says more about the audio industry than anything else I think.
Give the DAC1 some time to warm up before evaluating and remember it is not yet broken in. I agree that the parts quality is only average but decent. The designer at Benchmark I spoke with claimed they were trying to cater to the pro market and all that entails ; ) The part that most want to change are the op-amps in the output stage as they are only marginal quality. The designer advised against this as he said they had tried a few other (more expensive and better specified) chips and were happiest with the current chipset. He found he was always giving something up to gain somewhere else.
I didn't find the DAC1 to be lacking in detail (especially midrange) or clarity through the headphone output and even less so through the XLR outputs. I found the DAC1 sound in general to be moderately dynamic and quite detailed but lacking in soundstage size. It seemed to me very matter of fact in it's delivery and a little thin in the bass end. What headphone cable are you using with your 650s? I also didn't get the best of this DAC until I used a good filtering power cord. Then the background was quieter and more relaxed. The clarity also increased. I found the Cardas Golden Reference power cord to work particularly well with the DAC1.
Surely I understand that it's only $1000 and at that price it definitely delivers.
I found it lacking in detail only through the headphones, but so far I'm using stock cable, although I plan to upgrade to Cardas. Is there any better recommendation for Senns? When I compare the sound of both headphones to what I hear from speakers, the Senns seem to be much closer in tonality (than Grado).
I also found that with Benchmark, I prefer single ended output, it seems cleaner than the balanced, although I used different cables in both cases (Silver Streak for single ended, Goertz silver for balanced). I'm using Cardas Golden Reference between preamp and amp, and I really like that IC.
So far my impressions are that Benchmark (probably like most other conventional DACs) is very good at portraying the music in a sence that it describes the musical picture pretty well, however, it lacks in keeping you in emotional contact with the performance. I'm missing here a bit of accoustic space, the gradation of tones and intonations of vocals. The highs are fine, but somewhat lacking in resolution the way you hear it from a analog disk.
Congrats on the other new DAC. I would hope the 360s holds up very well. It think you will find the ML 360s to be a better "music maker" than the DAC1. Let me know your impressions. I found the DAC portion of the Benchmark to be up to the task with every piece I compared it to. Where it needed help was in the analog section. It just isn't as effortless as it could be or dynamic. Also the soundstage is just too constricted for my taste. That is why I prefer my Vecteur L-4.2 and CEC HD53 V8.0 to the Vecteur as a transport and the DAC1 into my CEC balanced. The DAC1 is only a grand US after all so I don't think it was originally designed to compete with the multi kilo buck pieces out there. The fact that it does hold its own says more about the audio industry than anything else I think.
Thanks Peter
There is a huge base of listening impressions and reviews for DAC1 on the net. I am sure that all are honest findings BASED on certain systems.
As an owner of the DAC1 I have to say that we have to be very sure that our speakers and cabling are close enough to neutral before drawing conclusions. I am very much afraid that we build our systems on the foundation of our beloved source and living room subconsiously. If then we insert a transparent component, equilibrium gets upset. Also its funny how systems optimised for vinyl hate CD and vice versa.
In my system (checked for inroom response and spectral room reverberation, hence a known quantity as a whole) the stereophonic rendering with the Benchmark has taken to humongous proportions with much more midrange detail and bass slam than with many well regarded high end cd players that visited in the past. The variable output vs fixed, lacks a little detail due to the pot and added circuitry. But if we dont have a very transparent preamp, its much better than fixed since we can bypass the pre altogether. Also the DAC1 does create a tentioned sonic result when driving a GainClone, I have done the test.
The Benchmark is sockingly close to truth. It can be dramatised further but in great attention in controled manner, step by step in a technically verified system for neutrality in an acoustically balanced, treated room. I have seen the Benchmark as a remastering DAC for classical music on the Macintosh of the official recordist of Athens state of the art classical hall "Megaro Mousikis''. I asked him what is his opinion. He told me 'tells it like it is'.
There is a huge base of listening impressions and reviews for DAC1 on the net. I am sure that all are honest findings BASED on certain systems.
As an owner of the DAC1 I have to say that we have to be very sure that our speakers and cabling are close enough to neutral before drawing conclusions. I am very much afraid that we build our systems on the foundation of our beloved source and living room subconsiously. If then we insert a transparent component, equilibrium gets upset. Also its funny how systems optimised for vinyl hate CD and vice versa.
In my system (checked for inroom response and spectral room reverberation, hence a known quantity as a whole) the stereophonic rendering with the Benchmark has taken to humongous proportions with much more midrange detail and bass slam than with many well regarded high end cd players that visited in the past. The variable output vs fixed, lacks a little detail due to the pot and added circuitry. But if we dont have a very transparent preamp, its much better than fixed since we can bypass the pre altogether. Also the DAC1 does create a tentioned sonic result when driving a GainClone, I have done the test.
The Benchmark is sockingly close to truth. It can be dramatised further but in great attention in controled manner, step by step in a technically verified system for neutrality in an acoustically balanced, treated room. I have seen the Benchmark as a remastering DAC for classical music on the Macintosh of the official recordist of Athens state of the art classical hall "Megaro Mousikis''. I asked him what is his opinion. He told me 'tells it like it is'.
I find the quote below rather important, and that was the main reason I couldn't keep that DAC. "Telling me how it is", is not quite enough for me anymore
I'm having the same problem with a Levinson DAC as well. And Benchmark looks like a toy in comparison: http://www.marklevinson.com/image_library/360SOH_lo.jpg
Hopefuly, proper ugrade improves the performance in that respect.
I'm having the same problem with a Levinson DAC as well. And Benchmark looks like a toy in comparison: http://www.marklevinson.com/image_library/360SOH_lo.jpg
Peter Daniel said:
Hopefuly, proper ugrade improves the performance in that respect.
Yes I understand your point. Its deep waters. We must be very careful that we will not lapse into some psychoacoustically warped source though.
Its something that interests me a lot. The beating of that elusive emotional frontier.
Interestingly I have never had this feeling of detachment when infront of an amplified event (was a pro sound engineer) even with much less than optimal systems and event spaces.
I am afraid that the big black hole is the recording process itself.
Its something that interests me a lot. The beating of that elusive emotional frontier.
Interestingly I have never had this feeling of detachment when infront of an amplified event (was a pro sound engineer) even with much less than optimal systems and event spaces.
I am afraid that the big black hole is the recording process itself.
I have a DAC1 as well, and I was planning on changing the diodes to HexFREDs, caps to Panny FMs, and opamps to BB OPA2107s- since they are duals, supposed to be as close as you can get to the 637s, and I have enough on hand to swap all of them. I would like to change the RCA outputs to a chassis mount conenctor vs. the stock board mount ones- probably no sonic differences, but the chassis mounts are stronger.
Removing the regulators huh? Might look into that as well.
Some one said to lift the ground on the AC plug too.
I can understand how some of the things Steve talks about are done, but some I don't understand how you do them...being that I'm not an EE, it makes it hard to follow engineer speak sometimes. I did modify my Bel Canto DAC2 like how Steve mentioned- only used Panny FM caps instead of Black Gates, and I didn't do any clock modifications. Upgrades made a difference in sound.
Removing the regulators huh? Might look into that as well.
Some one said to lift the ground on the AC plug too.
I can understand how some of the things Steve talks about are done, but some I don't understand how you do them...being that I'm not an EE, it makes it hard to follow engineer speak sometimes. I did modify my Bel Canto DAC2 like how Steve mentioned- only used Panny FM caps instead of Black Gates, and I didn't do any clock modifications. Upgrades made a difference in sound.
Battery powered Benchmark?
Has anyone tried or looked into battery powering
the DAC1 ? If I'm not mistaken their are jumpers
on the board near power supply for the +-18v rails
and if these were removed an outboard supply
could be jumpered in easily!?
Thinking this would eliminate hash modulating in
from the AC line and not spew DAC hash out into
the rest of the system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillips CD80-optical out>DAC1>HK Citation I>(or Brian Clark 4tubepre)>(or direct to)> MauroPensaMyRef(or a highly modded HK Citation V)> SEAS Thor
Has anyone tried or looked into battery powering
the DAC1 ? If I'm not mistaken their are jumpers
on the board near power supply for the +-18v rails
and if these were removed an outboard supply
could be jumpered in easily!?
Thinking this would eliminate hash modulating in
from the AC line and not spew DAC hash out into
the rest of the system.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Phillips CD80-optical out>DAC1>HK Citation I>(or Brian Clark 4tubepre)>(or direct to)> MauroPensaMyRef(or a highly modded HK Citation V)> SEAS Thor
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