AUDIO SCIENCE REVIEW and $50 to spend.........

They aren't saving you money if you buy something based on specs and it sounds poor in your system.   They have also turned many people away from great sounding, well built products.   Remember that.  

The Benchmark is a great piece that is everything it's advertised to be.   Again, another product that's measurements approach the limits of testing.   Show me one paragraph where they praised it's sound quality.   I bet you can't  because they are all about numbers.  

Sometimes they measure what is a great product.   The RME adi2 DAC was the darling of ASR until it's measurements were surpassed by some Chi Fi DAC which of course they loved.   I have a RME and it's a good DAC , no doubt.  

They would probably not give a favorable review on the DAC that replaced it, the excellent sounding LAB 12 DAC 1 Reference.    Most of today's gear measures pretty good, at least beyond the limits of human hearing, with low noise and distortion.    That's why ASR isn't doing you any favors.    Do you like how a component sounds ?   Then buy it.   Don't let what some internet site that only cares about specs sway your decisions.    My whole system is comprised of stuff they would and in some cases have ripped to shreds.   Yet it sounds great.

That's great Amir likes your preamp,  but there is a lot of crap they love over on that site so to use it as a barometer for what sounds excellent is silly.    They trash some really nice gear and praise a lot of Chi Fi ......

Buying gear based on measurements is sure to yield a system with low noise and hopefully great dynamic range but in no way guarantees an engaging , musically satisfying system.  Only careful matching through listening guarantees that.

If you put more effort into listening to the gear than the music then why bother.  A great sounding system should make you not even think about the gear,  you just get wrapped up in the music .