Used MF Trivista 21 or Benchmark Dac1?

I just asked myself the same question, and ended up getting the Trivista 21. Part of my thinking is that it seems more likely to hold its value IMO. MF has a good rep over a long period of time, and Benchmark seems to be more of a "flavor of the year". The Benchmarks are getting dumped in large numbers here, probably because some want it with the USB output.

First impressions of the Trivista 21. Built like a tank with exceptional fit and finish. Sounds much better than modded Sony NS500DVD Universal player w/o the dac(as you'd expect!). On my rig 192k sampling sounds much better than 96k, and this contradicts other comments that I've read here. For my ears(& some friends), 96k sounds a bit hotter than should be in the treble, while 192k sounds more naturally balanced while giving up a tad of high freq energy. The tubes don't give it a very tubey sound, like you might associate w/older tube power amps,etc, so it's hard to say if that will tone down the Krells, but overall the sound is pretty smooth, so I think it'd be fine. Probably so would the Benchmark or the BelCanto.
FWIW, Using a Sterevox XV2 dig cable here, based on widespread recommendations, couple w/my lack of dig cable experience.
Sorry to sound inconclusive, but I haven't compared side-to-side, and don't want to give you any definitive proclamation. Cheers,
Spencer

Can any of you explain the lights in the footers of the Trivista21? I've seen them red at startup, then amber or blue when playing music. What's the amber vs blue indicate?

Trivista 21 is a dac, so you need a transport; other than that, yes it's far more than acceptable as stock. It has 4 nuvistor tubes which reportedly last 100,000 hours! IOW, no you'll never need to replace them. They are pretty cheap anyway. I'd guess that it would improve your Krell, as your seek. I wouldn't say it strikes me as "lush", though. Cheers,
Spencer