Wilson is one of the most brilliant and versatile drummers out there. At a jazz festival several years ago, I saw him play as a sideman with four completely different bands on the same night—straight-ahead bop, screaming avant-garde, borderline classical chamber, and...honestly, I forget what the 4th band was like, but the point is, he delved…
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Drummer-composer Matt Wilson's new album, Gathering Call (on the Palmetto label), is a lot of fun, as several reviews have noted, but don't hold that against him. This is, as the late Lester Bowie called one of his own later albums, "serious fun."
I totally called this one.
In 2007, I spent time with Bel Canto Design's e.One DAC3 D/A processor. In his review of the DAC3 in the November 2007 issue, John Atkinson quoted my comparison of it with the Benchmark DAC1, which I called "the Swiss army knife of audio" and "one of the only future-proof source components you can buy these days."
Sure enough, in 2013, the standalone DAC-preamp has become an integral part of the audiophile world, and no company has led the way to the high-quality DAC/preamp/headphone amp as confidently as has Benchmark Media. I bought my original…
In particular, the DAC2 HGC's treble performance seemed a big step forward from that of the DAC1 and DAC1 HDR, both of which I've used extensively. My impression was that the DAC2's treble was far more silky and smooth than the earlier Benchmarks. To confirm this, I compared the DAC2 HGC head-to-head with the DAC1 HDR. Sure enough, the DAC2 had slightly cleaner treble performance than the older DAC1 HDR. But surprisingly, the DAC2 offered far more body on the tone, which can be heard as a more solid sonic image, or perhaps a slightly more full-bodied rendering of each sound. The Benchmark…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: D/A processor/preamplifier/headphone amplifier, Digital inputs (switch selected): 1 USB, 2 optical, 2 coaxial. Input sampling-frequency range: 28–210kHz (coaxial); 28–96kHz (optical); 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz, plus DSD (USB). Jitter-attenuation method (all inputs): Benchmark UltraLock2. Analog inputs: 2 pairs on RCAs. Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced on XLRs; 2 pairs unbalanced on RCAs; 2 headphone outputs on ¼" jacks. Power consumption: <0.5W idle, 12W typical program, 15W maximum.
Dimensions: 9.5" (249mm) W by 1.725" (44.5mm) H by 9…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Clearaudio Ovation turntable/tonearm with Talisman V2 cartridge.
Digital Sources: Benchmark DAC1 HDR; Hewlett-Packard EliteBook laptop running JRiver Media Center 18; Bel Canto Design DAC3.5 VB Mk.II D/A converter & CD2 CD player & VB1 power supply; CEntrance DACMini CX.
Preamplification: Clearaudio Basic+ phono preamplifier.
Power Amplifiers: Rogue Audio M-180 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Revel F208.
Headphones: Sennheiser HD600.
Cables: USB: Cardas Clear, DH Labs. Digital: Silver Sonic D-110 AES/EBU,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I examined the Benchmark DAC2 HGC's electrical performance with Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). The DAC2 HGC's performance via its USB port was tested using my 2012-vintage Apple MacBook Pro. Apple's USB Prober utility identified the Benchmark as having the Product String "Benchmark DAC2 USB Audio 1.0" or "Benchmark DAC2 USB Audio 2.0," depending on which mode the DAC2's USB input had been set to. The Benchmark operated with the preferred isochronous asynchronous…
I was alerted to the new VEGA D/A processor from Chinese manufacturer AURALiC by Michael Lavorgna's rave review for our sister site AudioStream.com in April 2013: "Everything I played through the Auralic Vega was equally wow-inducing. Everything. . . . Music I've heard hundreds of times was presented with a crisp, clean, and delicate clarity that was simply uncanny and made things old, new again. . . . Its ability to turn music reproduction into an engaging and thrilling musical experience is simply stunning."
That sounded like a DAC I needed to review, but it wasn't until July that…
Returning to "pure" digital, I changed to the Vega's USB input and selected the live version of "Fat Man in the Bathtub" on Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat (16/44.1 ALAC ripped from CD, Warner Archives/Rhino R2 79912). Some Internet know-everythings have opined that a delta-sigma DAC can't get close to the sense of musical pace you get from a resistor-ladder DAC. Well, I wish those people had been in my listening room as the late Richie Hayward's loose-limbed drum intro to "Fat Man," as reconstructed by the Vega, had me up from my listening chair dancing around the room.…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled, upsampling, stereo D/A processor with volume control. Digital inputs: 1 AES/EBU on XLR, 2 S/PDIF on coax, 1 S/PDIF on TosLink, 1 USB 2.0 on USB type B connector. Analog outputs: 1 pair balanced on XLRs, 1 pair unbalanced on RCAs. Compatible sample rates: 44.1–192kHz, AES/EBU, S/PDIF coaxial and TosLink; 44.1–384kHz, DSD64 (2.8224MHz), DSD128 (5.6448MHz), USB. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, 0.1dB. Channel separation: not specified. Dynamic range: 130dB ref. 0dBFS, 20Hz–20kHz, A-weighted. THD+noise: <0.00015%, 20Hz–20kHz at…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge.
Digital Sources: Marantz Reference NA-11S1 media player; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; Apple 2.7GHz i7 Mac mini laptop running OS10.7, iTunes 10, Pure Music 1.89, Audirvana Plus 1.5.10, JRiver Media Center 19 for Mac; Benchmark DAC2 HGC, NAD M51 D/A converters; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 & Benchmark ADC1 USB A/D converters.
Preamplification: Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier, Pass Labs XP-30 line preamplifier.
Power…