GraceDesign

Since I have not had the opportunity to spend time listening to a Benchmark I can only remark on features and capabilities. (although I may throw in a little design philosophy) I am confident that the Benchmark is an outstanding sonic performer. John Siau is a very capable designer and Benchmark has a long history of building quality gear. Here are a few things that come to mind where I see the significant differences between the DAC2-HGC and the m920: Galvanically isolated USB port. This is a really important feature! The m920's USB streaming section is completely ground isolated from the rest of the DAC. The USB streaming controller is powered by the host computer and it transfers the audio data through high speed isolators. Computers can have incredibly noisy grounds due to the myriad of switching power supplies (main supplies and board level), oscillators, video drivers, disk drives, Ethernet ports, etc... You do not want to connect your computer ground to your audio system ground as this can cause all sorts of anomalies in analog and digital audio circuits. Clocks require incredibly low noise grounds and power supplies to maintain low jitter performance. Letting computer system noise in to your DAC can dramatically reduce your clocking performance. Oh, the SPDIF and AES3 inputs are galvanically isolated as well. Balanced inputs. The m920 has precision differential receivers for balanced analog input. As well, the m920 has balanced and unbalanced line outputs that have independent volume control. Each output has a calibration setting of +/-9.5dB so you can match sound levels between different speaker systems and headphones. Exclusive output mode, i.e. headphones off when listening to speakers and vice-versa is available though the setup menu. Removing the top cover is not required. Balance control. The m920 allows for 6db of left-right balance control in .5dB steps. Also, mono is available from the setup menu. Programmable power up volume levels. Ability to use our IR remote control, the Apple remote, or the Logitech Harmony remote. Ability to choose between fast, slow, and minimum phase digital filters. No ASRC. The m920 operates the ESS Saber DAC with its built in Asynchronous Sample Rate Converter *bypassed*. Instead of relying on an ASRC to remove jitter we use a two stage crystal based phase lock loop. This is "old school" these days because of the expense and difficulty in implementation but we believe in leaving the audio data alone. ...so there is my biased opinion of why you should buy the m920! I don't think you would expect anything else. We believe in our gear because we design, build, and use it every day! Cheers, Michael -edit- Oh, and if you have a need for DXD (384kHz) or DSD 128x playback the m920 supports those formats on the USB interface.

Brian, Thanks for the objective and pragmatic review of the m920. We appreciate product reviews when the reviewer really used and got to know the equipment and formed an educated opinion, which you clearly did. I thought I might expound on the price point issue a little. Certainly there are many many choices for headphone amp/DACs these days. Since we released the m902 in 2002, the landscape has become well populated with products up and down the price spectrum. Clearly there is a lot of focus on the $1000 price range right now, where there are many solid offerings that, on paper, deliver the same features as more expensive units. But as you properly acknowledged, Grace Design is primarily a pro audio company, which denotes some important distinctions when it comes to price. While consumer oriented companies have to maintain a parts cost ratio around 1/6th of the retail price, pro audio margins are considerably lower at 1/3 to 1/4 of retail. So while the m920 is sitting in the sort of awkward range of $1500, it in fact represents a much higher value than similarly or slightly lower priced options which are consumer only. If it the m920 were being sold through consumer hi-fi channels with standard markup, it would be in the $3200 msrp range. Simply put, a dollar to dollar component and build comparison between the m920 and the current crop of $1000 devices would reveal a dramatic difference in quality and value. What do we mean by quality and value? Many things, which aren't always up front in the marketing materials or feature set comparisons. What we design and build comes from a heritage of high-end pro audio performance. These are tools that are designed to be used day in and day out for decades. Pro customers rely on our equipment to not only provide superior / trustworthy sonic performance but with bombproof reliability under mission critical conditions (recording the Metropolitan Opera or the Grammy's, where equipment failure is not an option). We have products that have been in service since 1993 and are likely good to go for the next 20 years. Statistics will predict that problems can arise, and when they do pride ourselves on our fast, courteous customer service. We still service every model of microphone preamplifier, monitor controller, and headphone amplifier that we have ever made. The 5 year transferable warranty on the m920 is just the beginning of our commitment. Add to this that everything is still made by us in Lyons, CO, and the slightly higher price of the m920 starts to seem trivial. m902 customers are truly getting a much greater value than the price difference might belie. So what does this mean for the educated, discerning hi-fi enthusiast? Possibly it's not mission critical that their headphone amp / DAC work flawlessly for 20 years. But I think given the choice between that kind of staid, proven quality and not, the little extra money for the m920 might just seem trivial. Cheers, Michael