Of the two, I'd probably just barely suggest the Benchmark. Nice unit.

I have tried both and for me they are about the same except that the Mytek is 8 channel and the Benchmark Dac-1 is 2 channel. Depends your need I guess.

Regards,

Richard

:? Doh! Sorry, just realized that you mentioned the Stereo mod for the Mytek :roll:

Richard

Massive Mastering wrote: Of the two, I'd probably just barely suggest the Benchmark. Nice unit.

You can see that this stuff is subjective because I came up with a similar but opposite conclusion as Massive and ended up going with the Mytek.

Anyway - you definitely want to listen for yourself when making these decisions - I'd either ask a dealer that has both to give you a demo, or rent both units at once for a day, or if neither of those is possible you can listen to some comparison files at http://www.mytekdigital.com/listening_test.htm

Just to make your life more complicated - if you can come up with more cash you might want to demo the Lavry Blue units too.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

From what I've read, the Lavry Blue unit appears to be the best of these, but it doesn't have a level control for monitors, or a heaphone amp, both of which are valuable to me, and also make the cost of a similarly configured system that much more than the Mytek and DAC1. That gives the DAC1 a slight edge. I heard the DAC1 at NAMM and was very impressed.

Of course it was on heaphones only, but they were MD600s, which I also use, so I had a good frame of reference, and I used a CD I was familiar with. And with two headphone inputs, it means overdubs with another musician allow both of us to enjoy the benefit of the DAC1 high quality headphone amp.

If you need an inexpensive volume control on a DAC, and want the DAC to sound good too, then I would choose the DAC1. The Lavry is a better converter but like you said, it doesn't have a volume control. Looks like you found which one you are going to buy.

I don't know about the Benchmark, but I love my Mytek converters. Plus they don't cost an arm and a leg.

I got the Benchmark DAC1 last week and it's a perfect fit for me. I noticed a nice improvement right away, both on my BM6As and my HD600s.

I love it! :D

I am prety sure it sounds very nice with the HD600, I believe it is a perfect match !

Richard