Benchmark DAC1
A 24-bit/192 kHz converter that pro-audio engineers treated as a reference and that quietly became a control-room staple.
Overview
The Benchmark DAC1 is a two-channel digital-to-analog converter built by Benchmark Media Systems of Syracuse, New York. The company's own materials call the DAC1 conversion system "award-winning" and 24-bit/192 kHz capable, and say the DAC1 "has become a staple of control rooms around the world." That's marketing copy, but the pro-audio press treated the box much the same way. EQ (2003, p.92) reviewed the DAC1 as a two-channel D/A converter, at a time when studios were pushing deeper into digital and paying far more attention to the back end of the signal chain than the front.
Benchmark built its reputation on clocking. The company's UltraLock clocking system is claimed to be jitter-immune. The marketing line is that it delivers consistent, mastering-grade performance "regardless of clock source." Owners and reviewers have long treated that claim as the DAC1's defining virtue. You feed it a digital signal from a CD player, a music server, a satellite box, or a computer, and the converter is designed not to care how clean the incoming clock is.
The DAC1's analog section is built around LM4562 premium op-amps, according to Benchmark's own documentation, and the line has been refined over time. Pro Audio Review (September 2008, p.26) noted that the latest Benchmark converters, the DAC1 USB and DAC1 Standard, carried improved line gain stages and headphone gain to make high-impedance loads easier to drive.
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