New vs. old DACs - opinions?

Some new DACs like Benchmark DAC1 do asynchronous upsampling with very strong jitter rejection. They sound great with any transport and any digital cable. It is very flexible (I use DVD player), allows long runs of digital cable or connection to less than ideal jitter-wise sources (computer card, ipod etc).

Since your intention is to buy DAC I would advise to get factory new one. Older versions of Benchmark, for instance, had some problems (they are at rev. G or higher now). I know of two. One was usage of Signetics NE5532 thin sounding OP-Amps until factory burned down (around 2001/2002)and Texas bought license for NE5532. They designed larger die and sound became fuller. Second problem was way to high output impedance on unbalanced (RCA) outputs. USB version has also better (stronger)output driver (LM4562) for XLR outputs allowing lower output impedance (important).
Additional factor is warranty - 5 years but only for original owner.

"I always recommend getting a great transport first"

- why would you buy transport first not knowing what type of DAC you'll end up with. Fancy transport with upsampling DACs like Benchmark DAC1 or Bel Canto DAC3 is a waste of money since all transports will sound exactly the same.

The only advantage of expensive transport over cheap DVD player is low output jitter. Benchmark DAC1 has jitter bandwidth of 3Hz and at the frequency of interest (kHz) reaches over 100dB rejection. If you take into consideration that jitter caused artifacts were at level of roughly -85dB to start with then it is virtually impossible to hear any difference between transports unless one of them is not bit transparent (DSP processing, digital volume control etc).

Stanwall - you mentioned your DAC playing at 96kHz better than 192kHz. It is because every DAC chip has lower THD at 100kHz than 192kHz update rate. For that very reason Benchmark decided to update only at 110kHz output DAC chip that is capable of 24bit/192kHz.

As for multibit or one bit dilema they have specific sound. Most of converters now are one bit (delta-sigma) and even SACD is a byproduct of delta-sigma just before filtering. Most of people don't complain about sound of SACD or DSD recording maybe because it is not in priciple but in realization. It is very difficult to keep exact timing with high oversampling rates and delta sigma end-up not much better than multibit converter. Multibit is limited by tolerance of component to about 18 bit but there are improvements on the scheme. DCS makes RING-DAC where they shuffle components inside (ring of 5 if remember correctly) to get an average value. ARCAM bought license from them and used RING-DACs in earlier FMJs (FMJ-23 I believe). They had poor production yield and stopped but I believe DCS still makes them.

On Benchmark forum people tried DAC1 with different transports and only few stated that they noticed faint difference (placebo effect?).

My point was to try first, before buying expensive transport and feeling stupid afterward when cheap DVD performs alike.

I read manufacturer description of your DAC. It states 16x and not 4x but it specifically says that it does not reclock (asynchronous upsampling). Without reclocking there is no jitter rejection and DAC is sensitive to jitter/transport. Upsampling by definition uses non-integer oversampling rates while simple oversampling (usually done by PLL) is always integer. So if it states 2x, 4x, 8x 16x oversampling be assure it is not jitter rejecting DAC (as stated on MSB website). Benchmark has equivalent of over 1 million times oversampling.

Keith - I'm sure your DAC is great sounding and I noticed that it gained Stereophile class A recommendation. It just needs good transport to show its full potential (and good digital cable).

Benchmark has such strong jitter suppression that not only the transport doesn't make any difference but also digital cable is not important. Benchmark tested DAC1 with up to 1000' of cable and they could not hear any difference. There is no other parameter than jitter that affects the sound of transport or digital cable.

Reclocking is in a sens "magic bullet" but only for the jitter and other parts of the DAC like clock, power supply analog stages etc have to be great as well. In addition not everybody likes the sound of oversampling and upsampling DACs - many prefers sound of NOS (non-oversampling) DACs.

EAC is a great program but it doesn't come in version for MAC (I recently switched).

Kirkus - I have more experience with components than audio but components such as op-amp for instance made long journey in last 20 years. Currently they cost more than before but if you calculate price in dollars per MHz of bandwidth or offset drift or noise then new amps are at least 10 times cheaper. There were only few (unfortunately) intended for high en audio like very old NE5532 or very new LM4562 - not enough market for them perhaps.

I agree with you on responsibilities of designer. Designer can screw-up design of power supply today as easily as 20 years ago. Certain components like clock oscillators with extremely small jitter might be very expensive but it's money well spent. Designers often cut corners in places where they shouldn't. It is very sad to see piece of great equipment with one or two inferior components that somebody else (modding people) replaces to dramatically improve performance.

Kirkus - You said it right. It is very sad that we don't represent any buying power.