Benchmark DAC1 Pre


G'day guys,

Well my Benchmark DAC1 pre should arrive here on Monday (I believe I am one of the lucky ones in Aus to actually get one in). Anyway, I have a quick question with connections.

I am wondering what the best way to hook it up to my set-up will be.

Option 1: XLR out from Benchmark to XLR in of my mono-blocks and RCA out of Benchmark to RCA in of Subwoofer.

Option 2: RCA out of Benchmark to Subwoofer RCA in> RCA out of Subwoofer to RCA in of mono-blocks.

Anyone have any thoughts on what will give me the best audio quality?

Cheers
warnsey1
I would strongly recommend (if possible for your subwoofer) that you run the subwoofer off the amp and not the preamp. I think it integrates better than having two different loads (speaker amp and subamp) pulling from your preamp.

8^(
Hi Warnsey,
I'm in the same boat with the DAC1 Pre. (Also in Oz)I waited over 5 weeks for mine, which came on Friday. Apparently the distributor doesn't like to keep stock. The manufacturing date on the base of the unit is Sept. 15th - 11 days after I paid for it!
Because my XLR to RCA cables are the generic pro variety, I decided to run the RCA to the power amp with higher quality cables, and the XLR to the sub.
It sounds great. Not having anything in the same league to compare it to, I can only say that it leaves the Squeezebox analog output for dead, as well as my much loved old Rotel 965BX LED CD player.
In my set-up it is replacing (at least temporarily) an ME-25 pre-amp and feeding a Rotel 990 power amp and Sonus Faber Concerto or Spendor 2/2 speakers.
First impressions (switch on audiospeak) are: more detail; liquid mids; much more distinct tonal colours; very easy to listen to for hours (and hours!); recordings seem more differentiated from each other; I can "hear" the space where the recording took place far more clearly than ever before - reminds me of vinyl.
Cheers.
Thanks for the responses guys. Just got the Benchmark today. It is a beautiful bit of kit (I didn't realise how cute and small it is). At the moment I am running option 2 as I don't have a spare XLR cable at the moment. However, I will further experiment soon.
I'm very interested in your impressions of the Benchmark on your particular horn/tube based system. I'm thinking you should have a really good thing going with this particular combo.