Ashton

The 'preamp' section of the dac2 is completely different from the dac 1 hdr/pre. In the DAC1, the volume control was a typical alps volume pot, which controls the analog output. In the DAC2, when you use the analog inputs, the alps pot controls the analog output. But when you use the digital inputs (usb/spdif etc), the pot controls the digital source gain via the DSP. In other words, "digital volume control". This is NOT the same as the digital control used in software/music players. It's completely different and the software approach is terrible. IMO, the hardware digital volume control approach used in sabre 9018 chip is a sound implentation, and i'm glad benchmark is using it. For more technical information, check out the official ess paper on digital vs analog volume controls: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.esstech.com%2FPDF%2Fdigital-vs-analog-volume-control.pdf&ei=T0mJUOv8AsjSrQfDnIDwDA&usg=AFQjCNFnmj3c1hZPhmHNaCfOlpofNE4TDQ

DAC2 manual is out on the website! DAC2 HGC - Manual and Documents | Benchmark Media Fast forward to page 38 for the specifications/measurements. I'm a little disappointed to see only 10 dB and 20 dB attenuation, and the analog output stage seems to be the ne5532 still

The benchmark dac2 hgc manual should be coming out today/tomorrow latest. We'll have a lot more information on it after that. It's using the ess sabre 9018. It is one physical dac chip with 8 internal dacs, if that makes any sense at all lol. I'm looking forward to the new benchmark, too