Owner`s manual

the absolute sound July/August 2013 161
the electronics in my playback chain. And anyone who’s doing
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give greater consideration to his conversion methodology. If a
reviewer doesn’t know or hasn’t bothered to control how a DSD
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and differences between PCM and DSD are highly suspect.
Anyone who says that a particular DAC is “better” than another
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conversions needs to reevaluate his methodology, because the
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greater than the differences in hardware and software being
compared.
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playback was more relaxed, natural, and, dare I say it, analog-like
in presentation.
Benchmark made some bold claims about the quality of the
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had available the DAC2 headphone amp rivaled the sonics of
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(Issue 233). On all the commercially-available recordings I tried
the DAC2 had enough gain to handle the most power-hungry and
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ohm version and the Audeze LCD-2. With my own recordings
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250-ohms, the DAC2’s headphone amp had ample gain. Note
that the headphone gain range is internally adjustable in 10dB
steps (0dB, -10dB, -20dB), with the factory default at -10dB. This
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for the highest signal-to-noise ratio.
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Meelectronics A16P balanced-armature earbuds, there was no
low-level hiss, spurious noise, or other signs of excessive gain.
After many hours of headphone listening I had to conclude that
the headphones themselves, rather than the DAC2 headphone
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DAC2’s headphone output reproduction chain.
Another Perfect Benchmark DAC?
While I would never be so brash as to even suggest that further
improvements in DACs, USB interfaces, and analog circuitry
aren’t possible or won’t result in better sound quality, the
Benchmark DAC2 does make a strong case that the current-
generation digital-to-analog interfaces are no longer the weakest
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