Instruction Manual for DAC3 HGC and DAC3 L with 2.X Firmware Page 6
High-Headroom Digital and Analog
Processing
The DAC3 has generous amounts of analog
and digital headroom. The analog clip point is
above 29 dBu. The digital clip point is 27.5
dBu. When operating at a typical -20 dB at
+4 dBu studio calibration, the DAC3 has 3.5
dB of digital headroom above 0 dBFS. This
digital headroom prevents the clipping of
intersample overs.
No Clipping of Intersample Overs
The DAC3 is one of very few D/A converters
that can accurately reproduce intersample
overs without clipping. Intersample peaks can
reach +3.01 dBFS and commonly occur many
times per second in most 44.1 kHz and 48
kHz recordings. When recordings are ripped
using lossy compression systems (such as
MP3), additional intersample overs are often
created. Most converters (including the
DAC1) produce bursts of distortion at every
occurrence of an intersample over. In
contrast, the DAC2 and DAC3 converters
cleanly reproduce all intersample overs.
Low-Noise Power Supplies
The DAC3 uses high-efficiency low-noise
power supplies. Each critical subsystem also
has at least one dedicated low-noise
regulator. The high-efficiency supplies deliver
the substantial power required by the low-
impedance circuits, the headphone amplifier,
and the output line drivers. A power switch is
included. The standby power consumption is
less than 0.5 W when the unit is off.
Low Magnetic Emissions
The magnetic components in the DAC3 power
supplies operate at over 800 kHz. This allows
the use of very small magnetic components
that emit correspondingly small magnetic
fields. This virtually eliminates all traces of
line-frequency components in the output
spectrum of the DAC3. This also means that
the DAC3 can be placed in close proximity to
any audio component without causing
interference with the other component.
UltraLock3™ Clock System
UltraLock3™ provides the outstanding jitter
attenuation of Benchmark's UltraLock2™
system while providing virtually instantaneous
(6 ms) lock times.
Dual-Mode USB Input
The DAC3 has a USB input that can be
operated in two modes; driverless USB
Audio 1.1, and a high sample rate USB
Audio 2.0. Both use asynchronous clocking
to eliminate the USB interface as a source of
clock jitter.
Note: To provide full backward and forward
compatibility, the DAC3 uses the DAC2 USB
drivers. This prevents the need to install two
different sets of drivers. Please note that the
DAC3 USB input will be identified as
"Benchmark DAC2" in your computer control
panels. This is intentional.
Asynchronous USB Audio 2.0
The USB Audio 2.0 interface supports DSD
and 192 kHz, 24-bit PCM. No drivers are
required for Apple operating systems. Drivers
are provided for Windows operating systems
at: BenchmarkMedia.com/drivers
Native Asynchronous USB 1.1
The DAC3 has a driverless USB Audio 1.1
mode that supports 96 kHz, 24-bit PCM with
all operating systems. This mode provides a
quick and easy connection to a wide variety of
computers and tablets without installing a
driver.
HGC™ Hybrid Gain Control
HGC™ is Benchmark’s unique hybrid gain
control that combines analog and digital gain
control into a single volume control knob.
The HGC™ system uses an active analog gain
control for analog inputs and a 32-bit dithered
volume control for digital inputs. Both types
of inputs leverage the low-impedance passive
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