Gigawork 24/192 dac comparable with Benchmark dac ?

[ashok]

Has anyone got the new Gigawork DAC 24/192 listed at New 24/192 DAC DA CONVERTER CS8416+CS8421+CS43122 USB | eBay

They say it's comparable with the Benchmark DAC. The DAC chip is different I think.
Any user comments on this Gigawork dac ?

Thanks.

[torzsok]

I haven't heard either one of them, they might be comparable but they use considerably different technology. Gigawork upsamples everything to 24/192 with the CS8421 chip, while Benchmark will resample everything to 110khz. Let alone they use a different d/a conversion chip.

[stephensank]

I have never heard a Benchmark dac sound anything but dreadful, so I'd say the gigawerk can't be worse.

[a.wayne]

^^...


Well there are a lot of these things popping up on ebay , interest to hear if there are any good ...look at this one for 35.00 unbelievable can this be any good ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...K%3AMEWAX%3AIT

[ashok]

I doubt the $35 unit is bad. They have made a lot of cost cutting moves. No sockets on board only screw terminals. Maybe cheaper ( though decent) parts. Resistors must be local and not expensive types like other dacs. No transformer supplied.....Output circuitry must be simpler and maybe cheaper opamps.

I doubt the dac chip is bad. Must be a genuine one. Can only know what it is like by buying one. I guess at $35 it's probably worth it and if it is really good it would be an incredible buy ! If it's just OK then use it with your PC !

[ashok]

"......I have never heard a Benchmark dac sound anything but dreadful.........."

I've had a Benchmark dac for a few days when it first came out and became popular. It did sound good though not noticeably better than my DAC D2.5 of Chinese origin.
They appeared to have upgraded the design though I don't know if that really made any significant difference.

I was considering buying another DAC though I haven't decided which one as of now.

[a.wayne]

Originally Posted by ashok

Has anyone got the new Gigawork DAC 24/192 listed at New 24/192 DAC DA CONVERTER CS8416+CS8421+CS43122 USB | eBay

They say it's comparable with the Benchmark DAC. The DAC chip is different I think.
Any user comments on this Gigawork dac ?

Thanks.

So what's the concensus on the giga works .... good..?

[torzsok]

Consensus? No way. Some of our fellow diyers think that oversampling is the evil itself. Some even build discrete DACs from resistors. Others are fairly happy with their up/downsampling, adaptive filtered, jitter corrected, asynschronous usb/FW/Ethernet dacs. Try to keep this thread alive, and someone who have actually tried this Gigawork board will eventually show up.

[wwenze]

Lol.

Nothing is stopping anyone from saying that anything subjectively sounds better than something else.

[prairiemystic]

Out of the box, the Gigawork big DAC is not so great, but it responds very well to mods. It needs decent op-amps and I did a bunch of mods to the CS4398 DIP board to lower power supply noise, which make it sound really good. The PCB copper is really cheap and traces lift off if you do much desoldering. Just because "good" IC's are used doesn't mean the rest of the design (pcb, passives) is any good.

I have a Buffalo II/Ivy III/Placid which I am quite dissapointed with. Sonically, it is miles away from having the detail and definition that this DAC can achieve with heavy mods. I hate to say this and offend the ESS9018 gods, but it's my sad finding. I have not put these up against a Benchmark.

I am not a fan of ASRC's, I find they clean up the mids but mangle the high-frequency detail. A ride cymbal and high hat get such mp3-like qualities that I can only stand if for a while. Hard to hear differences in recordings from the 60's, 70's, 80's because every cymbal sounds alike.