HPA4 Review - Sandu Vitalie, Sound News
HPA4 - "The One to rule them All!"
"Today, is a very special day for me, since I believe I am hearing the best overall performance out of my headphones."
"Headphone listening at the Hi-Fi level is a big part of my life. I purchased my first headphone amplifier back in 2006 when just mentioning “a headphone amplifier” in the audiophile circles would rise both eyebrows and suspicion of sanity, today having one is a must have if you care about headphones in general."
"The distance performance-wise between HPA4 and my second-best headphone amp is Night and Day!"
"What I am testing today is the only headphone amplifier on the marked that is based on the top of the line dual-mono THX AAA-888."
"Like other audio components designed and made by Benchmark, HPA4 has an impeccable build quality top to bottom."
"The CNC milled front panel houses a very big and feature packed touch-screen LCD, a ¼” (6.35 mm) single ended headphone out, a 4-pin XLR balanced headphone out, a standby/mute button and a very special 256 step fully-balanced relay-controlled volume pot... using four 256-step relay-controlled attenuators and another four 16-step relay-controlled boost amplifiers."
"Together these are forming two fully-independent and fully-balanced stereo volume controls. One dedicated for the line-out (pre-amplifier) and one for the headphone amp. Each has a +15dB to -122 dB range in 0.5 steps."
"I didn’t know I would love the touch-screen so much, it is incredible how many features and settings can be controlled from there."
"I never seen such an advanced feature-set on a 100% analog headphone amp. From there you instantly mute any of the output, you can instantly lower the output by 20 db, select the desired input or output, you can even rename the analog inputs so you know what are you listening to. If your audio source has a lower power output, you can boost its signal by up to 10 db, or in case your source has super-hot power output, you can lower it down by 10 db. There are other, many other settings..."
"The THX-888 chips will deliver up to 6W of power into 16 Ohms, up to 11.9 Vrms into 300 Ohms and up to 1.5 Amperes! Since you can easily damage your headphone with those numbers, Benchmark incorporated several protection systems to avoid that from happening."
"The bandwidth of HPA4 extends from 0.01 Hz to over 500 kHz! This means HPA4 will deliver a very precise amplitude and phase accuracy over the entire audio bandwidth. It seems it’s time to upgrade my hearing apparatus with bat ears…"
"It never crossed my mind that I will hear new nuance, more hidden information out of my favorite tunes that I am listening to more than 15 years."
"It is like my favorite bands suddenly improved their recording and mastering equipment, there is more of Everything."
"HPA4 possesses an incredible fluidity and acoustic tonality."
"To this day there were many designs that had a very low noise floor but none of them were completely noise-free with IEMs, not a single one... With all that transparency, airiness and zero background noise to me HPA4 is having the most life like depth I encountered with headphones."
"It is quite unusual hearing depth information on all X, Y and Z axes."
"I personally loved every single headphone with it, from sensitive IEMs, portable ones to desktop and hard to drive ones, everyone shined and shown what they can do and what they can’t."
"This headphone amplifier and line pre-amplifier receives my highest recommendation and scores the highest rank in my book."
"It spoiled me so much, that for the past 3 days I’m waking up at 5 A.M. so I can listen, tap my feet and head-bang just a little bit more. I for one, started saving for one, I’m sorry but I can’t go back to regular amps."
"Without a doubt Benchmark HPA4 is an end-game, top of the line headphone amp – it’s The One to rule them All."
- Sandu Vitalie, SoundNews.net
Also in Reviews
AHB2 Review - Constantine Soo, Dagogo
"The AHB2 bridgeable stereo amplifier ... was the topic of a recent discussion between American electrostatic panel speaker manufacturer Sound Lab’s president, Dr. Roger West, and me."
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"Dr. West described the AHB2 as a class AB design using “feed-forward distortion reduction [thus removing] any possibility of pushing the margin of safety of a standard feedback loop, used in most amplifiers, into an unstable oscillatory mode.”"
"He further shared with me that “this is of most concern on powerful musical transients. The distortion of the amplifier in the balanced mode is astonishingly low even at just below the clipping level of 380 watts.”"
"The prospect of the AHB2’s specified distortion level of 0.00015% or lower when at full volume is comical at first glance, but upon actual audition the impact of the achievement is very audible from medium-high listening levels and upward."
"It was unlike any other sub-$20,000 amplifier I have auditioned."
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- Constantine Soo, Dagogo
DAC3 Review - Jerry Del Colliano
"Benchmark is a stalwart brand in pro audio, but has carved out a very respectable niche in the audiophile world with their diminutive but powerful components."
"The audiophile world sometimes looks to the professional audio world for enlightenment, especially on the digital side of things, and Benchmark Media is one of the companies that we put high on a pedestal."
"They are hardcore digital engineers freezing their asses off in upstate New York as they come up with some pretty innovative ways to get your varied digital sources sounding as much like the master tape as possible. Thank you for your service, gentlemen."
"If you really want to hear what your music sounds like in today’s streaming-driven world, this might just be the DAC that you need to test out."
- Jerry Del Colliano, Future Audiophile
DAC3 & AHB2 - System Review, Trevor Butler, The-Ear.net
"I began with the DAC3 HGC and AHB2 powering the glorious Morel Avyra 633 three-way floorstanders."
"This pairing created a full-bodied sound which brought the recording to life."
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"Wow! It was deep, tight and conveyed a real feeling that the electronics were in charge of the transducers."
"Involuntary foot-tapping confirmed the timing ability and the overall presentation was spot-on, the Benchmark electronics created a fluent sound across a vivid soundstage; performers evident both tonally and spatially in an easy-to-believe presentation that brought the performance close."
"The Benchmark’s ability to retrieve deep-down detail and display it so well across the soundstage, with accurate positioning and convincing layering, made for a glorious re-creation of the recordings."
"To my mind the AHB2 is an amplifier with no obvious characteristics of its own: the level of transparency is sublime."
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- Trevor Butler, the-ear.net