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RE: Stereophile Reaches a New Nadir

> > whether the third generation Benchmark got rid of the asynchronous conversion, which IMO is a "feature" to avoid in any DAC, if it cannot be defeated. < <

I know that the Benchmark has at least one ASRC, and likely two.

Their original Model One converted everything to around 110kHz because they felt the DAC chip used worked best at that frequency. Now the SRC convert everything to 205kHz to do a similar thing but that can still handle 192kHz source material. This is definitely non-defeatable.

Then they use an ESS DAC chip. All of them have a built-in ASRC that they call the "jitter eliminator". While it is possible to turn it off, the default and the way most manufacturers use it is to leave it turned on.

It is very possible that both ASRC's are always running and non-defeatable. I agree with you that I've never heard an ASRC that didn't degrade the sound noticeably. Throwing out all of the original digital audio data doesn't seem like it would be a very good idea, and my experience it is not.

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