Anyone keeping an eye on Benchmark products ?

[spaace]

Hi,

I have been off late looking into benchmark products - they have been getting a lot of love and all of them (atleast the dac (dac3) and the amp (abh2)) are in the stereophile class A components.

Independent measurements seem to corroborate the hype.

I wanted to check if anyone use them here and what their experience have been after the upgrades,

Thanks
Arun

 

[Fantastic]

I had a Benchmark DAC1 at my place a few years ago. We upgraded the op amps in it ( as suggested by other 'audiophile users !). It did sound very good but so did a couple of other Chinese DAC's that we had. It was hard to hear a difference. I felt it was not worth the price difference.
The same friend has bought a DAC3. He says it's very nice but doesn't say if it is better than the first one. I will get to hear it sometime . I really don't expect too much difference from the older DAC. Not to justify the current price.
So much of good stuff around at lower prices that it continues to amaze me that people just throw away good money instead of buying more good music ! There are subtle difference between DAC's. Sometimes you could make simple changes to improve them . But most often they are pretty good in stock form. Changes often are not necessarily better sound, but a change that 'you' like ... or appear to like at that moment of comparison !
The same friend who has the DAC3 told me that he was considering buying the ABH2 amp. He currently uses two ClassD modules from ICEpower. Recently he went to the US and auditioned the ABH2 amp for a few hours. He didn't buy it nor does he talk about it ! I'm sure it's good, but my friend apparently likes his classD's as much, if not better !