Turnover of DACs on used market

[bmckenney]

What do you think a high turnover of DACs on the used market implies. There is probably an average of over 1 Benchmark per day on Agon. And Bryston BDA1's come up pretty often. Some of it probably implies these DACs have a pretty good market share. But I wonder if also means there is some dissatisfaction with these DACs. I hardly ever see an Ayre USB DAC on Agon. Never see a Metric Halo on Agon and hardly ever on Gearslutz. Maybe the DACs that don't show up are really just very good and are keepers.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. Especially from those that have flipped a Benchmark or Bryston for another DAC they preferred in the same price range and did not just upgrade to another DAC in the $5K range.

 

Bryan

 

[Nyal Mellor]

I wonder if people using the benchmark / bryston have upgraded to higher priced dacs?

 

I did, from a Benchmark DAC1 to a Weiss DAC2. And I can't imagine upgrading the Weiss anytime soon, its that good.

 

[audiozorro]

The Benchmark DACs have been around for a long time and there are a lot of them out there. I believe their latest DAC is a fourth generation model. It is truly the benchmark that many use to judge (fairly or unfairly) other DACs. The Benchmark and Bryston DACs are excellent values and available through online Internet sales so I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of units sold is magnitudes greater than many other DACs. I usually recommend that folks, especially those upgrading, listen to the component in their system before buying. Both these DACs offer 30-60 day returns so one can infer that the initial customer satisfaction with these DACs is excellent or some of the dissatisfied buyers have no one but themselves to blame if they did not take the opportunity to freely evaluate these DACs in their homes.

 

I ordered Benchmark USB DAC1 and Benchmark Media Systems sent me the Benchmark DAC1 by mistake, which they soon corrected. I therefore had the opportunity to compare both units and found that using the same digital inputs (coaxial or toslink) the USB DAC1 sounded much better than the DAC1. I kept the USB DAC1 and about 9 months later I ordered an Apogee FW Mini DAC for evaluation. I and others in my circle that heard the comparison preferred the Benchmark so I returned the Apogee.

 

At the end of last year I planned to upgrade to the Berkeley Alpha DAC but I decided to buy a Korg MR2000s recorder so I could digitize some of my vinyl. I am ecstatic that I did and now I insist that my future DAC must be capable of playing DSD and preferably double DSD.