Don't you <I>really</I> wish the Bond girls are real?

Of course they should&mdash;wasn't that the core of George Smiley's appeal?James Bond may be fun to watch, but he'd never really last in the field.

When John Atkinson reviewed the Benchmark DAC1 USB digital/analog processor (watch for it in the January 2008 <I>Stereophile</I>), his test results raised some eyebrows at Benchmark. You'll have to read the review to discover what, but suffice it to say that Benchmark did some testing of their own and wrote us an interesting alert.

Obviously, no one wants to listen to exaggerated bass, italicized highs, or colored mids. But if you (as I have in the past few months) plug in several high-quality integrated amplifiers, each designed to a different price point, into the same basic signal chain, you'll experience a wide disparity of sound signatures.

Obviously, no one wants to listen to exaggerated bass, italicized highs, or colored mids. But if you (as I have in the past few months) plug in several high-quality integrated amplifiers, each designed to a different price point, into the same basic signal chain, you'll experience a wide disparity of sound signatures.