There's still one area of the proposed standard that sucks big-time, however: the multi-channel surround-sound audio soundtracks for DVD's MPEG-2-encoded digital movies…
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As you can read in this month's "Industry Update" (pp.35 & 37), the two conglomerates who hitherto seemed driven to offer the world two competing standards for the forthcoming Digital Video Disc came to their senses. Instead of consumers being offered Toshiba/Warner/Matsushita's SD and Sony/Philips's MCD, there will be just one high-density 4.75" disc to take both video and audio data storage into the 21st century.
The mind of man, when he gives the spur and bridle to his thoughts, doth never stop, but naturally sallies out into both extremes of high and low.—Jonathan Swift
In addition to being the genius of satire in the English language, Jonathan Swift was also one of the pre-eminent Protestant churchmen of his day. So it is likely safe to assume that when he spoke of "extremes of high and low," he had in mind manners and morals.
But Swift's observation is equally applicable to those who manufacture audio equipment. Extracting the most performance from the least expensive design remains…
On to the Benchmark. In many ways—size, shape, layout, and functions—the DAC 1 is startlingly similar to the Grace 901 headphone amplifier I wrote up in my column in the March 2003 issue (footnote 3) with the important distinction that, in addition to the two front-panel headphone jacks, the Benchmark's rear panel has RCA single-ended and XLR balanced analog line outputs that are switchable between line level, trim-pot-set "calibrated" level, and variable level, which in its default mode is controlled by the front-mounted volume control (footnote 4).
Shazam! Gloriosky, even. All you need…
The Esoteric P-70/D-70 system is an all-out assault. Each piece weighs 55 lbs. Industrial design and fit'n'finish are first-class. The size and shape are nearly identical to the Accuphase units, with the convenient and oh-so-welcome difference that the TEAC transport uses a conventional sliding drawer for the disc, not a trapdoor with a puck thingy. Hosanna!
Disc-access times are very fast, so there's no time to go down to the wine cellar and decant something before the music starts. The transport uses a precision, mirror-polished platter with a very slight convexity, to brace…
John Atkinson wrote about the Benchmark DAC1 in May 2004 (Vol.27 No.5):
We generally restrict Stereophile's review coverage to conventional consumer products. But the reality is that many pro-audio components are equally at home in domestic living rooms and recording studios, so we do look out for promising pieces of pro gear. In his July 2003 "The Fifth Element" column, John Marks alerted Stereophile readers to an example, the Benchmark DAC1 D/A processor and headphone amplifier (footnote 1), which he rated highly: "Shazam! Gloriosky, even. All you need is a transport to feed the DAC1 a…
Sidebar: Measurements
As is my wont when I write Follow-Ups on components previously covered in one of Stereophile's columns, I performed a full set of measurements on the DAC1. The maximum output level from the balanced jacks was a high 12.33V and a little less from the headphone jack, which clipped with a 0dBFS signal with the volume control set to its maximum. The unbalanced jacks delivered a full-scale 3.1V. All the outputs preserved absolute polarity, and the source impedance was a low 60 ohms from the balanced jacks, less than 1 ohm from the headphone output. The unbalanced source…
At a CES press breakfast in Las Vegas last January, a member of the "all amplifiers (and digital sources!) sound the same" school of audio journalism made an interesting assertion. He argued that if our society were studied by extraterrestrials, they would find an unhealthy obsession with the re-creation of experience at the expense of experience itself. This speculation was a vehicle to support his position that buying good hi-fi is a waste of money; for the same financial outlay, one can attend hundreds, even thousands of live performances. Moreover, this anti-high-end writer suggested…
Just who were these guys?—Wes Phillips
For me, it all began one soft October evening in 2000. John Atkinson invited me to attend a concert with him. When I accepted, he proposed picking me up at what seemed an unusually early hour. "It's in Princeton, New Jersey" he explained, and off we went.
When we arrived at the Nassau Presbyterian Church there, Cantus had already taken the stage. The audience, raptly attentive, consisted of several hundred boys and young men—entire rows of them dressed identically; it turned out they were from choral schools—and an equal number of more…
The Concert Hall is intimate, seating around 500, and is decidedly "modern"—all flat planes and glass surfaces, complete with a 55-rank organ and a reflective "cloud" suspended over the audience to focus the sound, which is bright and immediate. John's first task was to find microphone placements that made the most of the hall's reverberant cushion without emphasizing its unforgiving nature. A neat trick, and one I can blithely skip over—it wasn't my problem. Ditto the fan noise, which, in the spring-break silence, was wreaking havoc on our recording session from several buildings away.…
"I think you can hear how much that sharpens us," Lichte said. "Sure we're friends, but we're all professional musicians and we're all extremely critical about how the group sounds. It takes trust to handle that level of criticism—you have to know that we can be critical of your performance without judging you. We're from Minnesota, but there's none of that Minnesota 'nice' happening, where everybody's all lovey-dovey to your face, but all bets are off when you leave the room. We have a unique situation and we're going to enjoy it as long as we have it."
Enjoy it? Thrived on it…