kphinney;209304 Wrote: > 2pm EST, Saturday June 16 > > I just bought a Channel Islands Audio DAC and a friend of mine is on > his way over with a Benchmark DAC1 for a little comparison. I'd like > You to tell us what comparisons to run and we'll report back with our > impressions. > > Many here are proponents of the DAC1 so here's the unit we're comparing > to and my current setup: > > CI Audio VDA-2 with VAC-1 Upgrade Power Supply > "...coaxial SPDIF, then fed to the CS8416 24 bit/192k low jitter input > receiver, then to the Burr Brown PCM1794 balanced/current output DAC." > > JoLida 102B Amp > 2 matched pairs J J Tesla EL84's. > Electro-Harmonix 12AX7A pre-amp tubes. > > Omega 6 Grande > Full range Fostex FE 167E driver without crossover. > 95dB sensitivity 50-20KHz frequency response.
Two Years Later... The Saga Continues.... My good old bud G picked up some cigars in an less than acceptable place located close to the equator and decided to pop over to listen to an unbelievably old LP he dug out of his closet. Me, being the only one he knew with an adoration for both cigars (new) and useable phonograph (old), decided to spend a weekend-night listening to music while my wife was out of town. Before coming over we decided that he'd best bring his Benchmark DAC1 for a 2 year rematch/tiebreaker against my CI Audio VDA-2 & VAC-1. Well honestly, the cigars were more interesting. I can now tell a cigar rolled by the underpaid relative of a far flung Florida immigrant vs that of a Virginia machine produced roll better than I can tell the difference between the CIAudio gear and the Benchmark gear. It just so happened that we had a few additional speakers to try out this time and our listening room was much improved as I am demo'ing Zu's Druid as well as a B&W 802d. ((Yeah, I know - I said I'd never go back to B&W after buying my Omega 6 Grande's, but I couldn't pass the deal up. Anyway, they didn't last. The B&W's. For the heck of it I pulled out a pair of JBL 4-way 1972 speakers that just suck juice and the B&W's were only comparable but 2000x more expensive....)) Benchmark vs CIAudio. With 2 years of burn-in the results are the same: we both give the VDA-2 and upgraded PS a 5 out of 5, whereas the Benchmark gets a 4.5 out of 5. Price: Benchmark DAC1 vs Channel Islands Audio and upgraded PS - about the same. Noise floor: Black as night on both. High range: Slight edge to CIAudio. Let me explain - medium volume Stephen Stills "Just Roll Tape" the Benchmark cracked. It didn't handle his loose and floppy playing clean on the high end. It sounded like I needed to turn the volume down to prevent a crackle that was 'always almost there'. CIA sounded very good. As a tie breaker I pulled out my 180 gram LP thru a Parasound & Rega phono and, ... well, honestly the LP sounded better but no clearer than the CI Audio, but very much better than the Benchmark. We followed this up with another trifecta: Jackson Brown "Running on Empty", Track 1 - "Running On" Benchmark - opposite effect - it was flat on vocals. CIA - just fine. LP - A tad better. Low end: No difference. Tight bass. We spent two hours on it - at least. An entire Roger Waters DVD-A ripped to ALAC and switching back and forth between the Benchmark, CIAudio and Rotel CD player (sans DAC). Slight edge to the Rotel but NOT on the low end. All three were spot on exact. Unfortunately I didn't have an LP to cue up, but that's not really the point anyway; since both DACs were the same why introduce yet a 3rd format. -- kphinney *-Hopefully a new trend:*- I'm not endorsing or advertising any of my gear, nor flaunting it as an Audiophile setup. I like it, you may not. I understand and respect that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ kphinney's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10409 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=36172 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
