DAC Advise -- BENCHMARK DAC 3 - Opinions? Comparisons? Views? Reviews? or Anything Else ?

[muon*]

Pontus?

[Bengineer]

My old Galaxy S10s 3.5mm output?

[franky995]

My guess is on Pontus as I tried with dac3 and it didn’t sound like it.

[peppy]

1 hour ago, peppy said:

Play the song

Oh Man (Live@MNAC Museum) 

by 

Jain

 

Play first 10-15 seconds 

 

Then most importantly 

 

Skip forward to 3:08 when she stops signing and ONLY the music is being played in the Museum/Hall and let it play until the end.

 

Guess in which DAC did it actually sound like an empty museum/hall ?

 

DAC3 sounded correct 

I tested using HD800s.

 

26 minutes ago, franky995 said:

My guess is on Pontus as I tried with dac3 and it didn’t sound like it.

What were you using as headphone ?

[peppy]

The difference between DAC3 and Pontus is NOT day & night and won't put x % age points against it coz there's no way of measuring that hence poor baselining.

 

They both are nice accurate DACs. The feeling of having a 10kg DAC with big transformers (or whatever inside) does give you a secured feeling against a smaller machine.

 

Its just like wearing a very thick bullet proof jacket vs new tech thin jacket which is equally effective in stopping bullets , but thicker jacket gives you more peace of mind.

[Bengineer]

4 minutes ago, peppy said:

The difference between DAC3 and Pontus is NOT day & night and won't put x % age points against it coz there's no way of measuring that hence poor baselining.

 

They both are nice accurate DACs. The feeling of having a 10kg DAC with big transformers (or whatever inside) does give you a secured feeling against a smaller machine.

 

Its just like wearing a very thick bullet proof jacket vs new tech thin jacket which is equally effective in stopping bullets , but thicker jacket gives you more peace of mind.

Try backflip in a heavy jacket though Peppy. See what I'm getting at?

 

So. Which one won?

[franky995]

13 minutes ago, peppy said:

 

DAC3 sounded correct 

I tested using HD800s.

 

What were you using as headphone ?

Only have Empys right now, they are not known to be soundstage monsters.

[peppy]

32 minutes ago, Bengineer said:

So. Which one won?

'To my Ears & Requirement'

 

I will give DAC3 the win.

 

Why ?

(these points may not be applicable in your case)

• Nice musical DAC, not edgy at all. (want to know edgy, trebly , go try Mytek Brooklyn & DAC3 will be an R2R for your ears)
• Pulls through better in the busy passages of music .
• Slightly better than Pontus for Electronic and Alternative music, which is a big part of my preferred genre. 
• The instruments actually sound more separated on DAC3
• The DAC3 has preamp functionality 
• Output voltage is controllable via jumpers to avoid clipping.
• Has higher output voltage. Which means I can lower it if I want, but if I want higher voltage and dont have it, I am stuck, hence more preferred than less.
• One of the very few DACs - That have 3 outputs (instead of 2)
• One of the very very few DACs - That has an analog input which means , later on , if I want to add a DAC or a DAC Streamer (different tonality than DAC3) , I can , whilst maintaining this as a PURE PREAMP .
• Slams ever so slightly better than Pontus and bass is slightly more tight.
• Remote function is a god sent in my case as both my tube amp (McChanson 300b and Sparkos Aries) does not have a remote.

 

Pontus is nice , very very nice and people will easily choose that above DAC3 & I can see why.

It is not warm, initially I thought it is. But after a few hours, I stand corrected. Its not warm.

Warm muddies things, warm takes away dynamism, none of that is the case with Pontus. 

It is ever so slightly rounded on overall tonality and hence where a bit of teeth and bite is needed it says "nah..F'off , I am running at my own pace"

 

Seems I am not very good with defining depth in DACs , as they are very very close. VERY CLOSE.

Ppl will be perfectly happy with either.

 

But specifically for above mentioned reasons, to my ears & requirements , DAC3 is better option than PontusII .

Edited July 14, 2021 by peppy

[AlurkA]

29 minutes ago, peppy said:

Nice musical DAC, not edgy at all. (want to know edgy, trebly , go try Mytek Brooklyn & DAC3 will be an R2R for your ears)

I'll not be trying a Brooklyn then. 

 

Great summary of both DAC's.  Thanks @peppy  Will be continuing my trial of the DAC3 to see where the journey takes me.

[peppy]

22 hours ago, franky995 said:

Not a fair fight though is it - look at the size difference

only if we learnt something from history , rather mythology, whatever your beliefs tell you.

David vs Goliath can produce unexpected result.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by peppy

[Bengineer]

Goliath is like 90% air inside though in this case Just like two skinny dudes in a large trench coat.

[peppy]

I actually went in this comparison leaning more towards Pontus given a big 10kg machine vs 2 kg DAC3.

But even I was surprised..

 

Then I asked my partner to test. She couldn't care less, Pontus or Benchmark ...all she knew was she is testing 2 different amps using a 3rd amp .. 

(I can't bother to educate her DAC vs AMP neither is she interested)

 

Anyways, I know that the The woman has golden ears surely.

 

(ignore the references to 'the amp' pls of course_)

 

1.  Oh Man (Live@MNAC Museum) by Jain ... describing instruments having more kinda bloom to them and sounding a little more real

2. All about the bass (Europe mix) - Scott Bradlee - describes "using 'this amp' the vocalists seems to be more closer than the 'other amp'"

 --- YES look at the video, singer stands more forward than musicians. I know coz I have seen the video as well.

3. Keep the streets empty for me (LIVE) - Fever Ray ---- My partner describes "one amp sounds like the musicians are clearer and more in front of you, than the other" ---> Then I told her, yes this is a LIVE recording of the track.. and was supposed to sound like one.

 

I told you , she has golden ears...

 

BAMMM!!! Confirmed my results

 

[Ccollins]

Overall my history knowledge is not too bad, unfortunately though, greek mythology has always been my achille’s elbow

Edited July 15, 2021 by Ccollins

[peppy]

There is a thin line between history and 'myth'ology for some...

Gotta be careful nowadays. Ppl get offended more easily than they used to... hence "whatever your belief is" is a safe line ender.

5 minutes ago, Ccollins said:

Overall my history knowledge is not too bad, unfortunately though, greek mythology has always been my achille’s elbow

hahaha good one

[peppy]

Anyways..

Finally it is DAC3 for me with Sparkos Aries amp and McChanson 300b amp.

 

Now to headphones

[Esoterica]

Any fans of the Burson Composer 3X? I am toying with the idea of a standalone dac, as I currently only have the one in the Primare MM30 module and in the CXN V2 streamer. The Burson came up as one option.

[peppy]

1 hour ago, Esoterica said:

Burson Composer 3X

Not a Burson fan since their quality kept declining in the past few years.

So won't have anything positive to say, rather just keep quiet I guess on 'Burson' topic, from here.

[Bengineer]

Yeeeehawwwwwwwww *crash*. BURSON ARE TRASH YALLLLL. Woooohoooo. *big exit*.

 

On a serious note. They have some ok stuff that gets well reviewed. Bit of QC issues lately from what I can gather though, and thats the source of peoples feeligns toward them. Various DOA and units arriving without volume knobs etc.

 

My advice would be if you go that route, get a new one with warranty. I hold that belief with a few brands though, Cayin, Hifiman, Audeze. Best to get warranty.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Bengineer

[Ehrmantraut]

6 hours ago, Esoterica said:

Any fans of the Burson Composer 3X? I am toying with the idea of a standalone dac, as I currently only have the one in the Primare MM30 module and in the CXN V2 streamer. The Burson came up as one option.

You can PM me for my views and experience with the 3XR which I got from an AUS retailer.......

[lycos]

@peppy I have only tried RME, Bifrost and Ares.

So i'm trying to get a sense of both DAC3 and Pontus sound by interpolating those 3.

 

I assume DAC3 sounds (being delta sigma) sound closer to RME? Is it like an upgraded version of RME with similar tonality/signature?

And I assume Pontus is like upgraded version of Ares?

Edited July 16, 2021 by lycos

[peppy]

@lycos

Actually both of them, Pontus II & DAC3 sound very close.

Now whether Pontus II is not R2R-ish enough or DAC3 is not Delta Sigma-ish enough I can't say.

 

But Pontus does not warm things up like Ares, no.

DAC3 does not sharpen things at all, rather is very musical.

 

[lycos]

Thanks @peppy !!

[Guest _Apophis]

Accidentally I try Ares II in my system,  it sounds better in my sys than my first gen Pontus.

[muon*]

I might have missed it.

 

But were these new DAC you tried or did they both have plenty of hours of use on them already? Like hundreds of hours?

[peppy]

18 minutes ago, muon* said:

I might have missed it.

 

But were these new DAC you tried or did they both have plenty of hours of use on them already? Like hundreds of hours?

 

both were definitely 100+ hours

but less than 300 as both were about 6-8 weeks old