AHB2 Review - Toby Tingskog, dagogo

AHB2 - "Star Wars Attacks High End Audio"

"THX has patented a novel amplifier design, THX AAA Technology(TM) and Benchmark Media Systems has turned it into a new power amplifier – AHB2. The design is called Achromatic Audio Amplifier. Achromatic may mean colorless or neutral or without modulation. The AHB2 is an attack on current amplifier design. It’s basically an AB amp with a class H power rail arrangement."

"A low power Class A correction amplifier ... runs in parallel with the regular AB amplifier ... and corrects ... non-linearity in the transition stage."

"The AHB2 is a class AB amp – but could easily be mistaken for a class D with its very compact dimensions. The small size is made possible by the compact switching power supply."

"The AHB2 has a resonant zero-voltage switching power supply. The switching is carried out at frequencies well above the audio band to reduce any audible artifacts from the power supply. Switching power supplies are much more efficient, and smaller, than linear transformer based supplies."

"The AHB2 power supply is regulated and very efficient in combination with the H Class rails. Benchmark claims that there is no sagging in internal voltage during high loads or when line voltage dips."

"The amplifier has a spectacular frequency response of 0.4 Hz to 200 kHz. This means that the AHB2 will amplify the high frequencies present on high res digital files."

"So is there a sound signature to the AHB2? Since THX calls it Achromatic we can assume that they were not aiming for a warm and sweet tubey sound – and this is not what it delivers. The sound is indeed neutral and exact without being sterile or clinical. Colorless? Not really. The amp will send through the sound palette of the source component and disc/file without stripping any color away."

"The Benchmark AHB2 is a solid foundation for an audio system. It is very quiet with extremely low distortion."

"The AHB2 is so good it will immediately expose weaknesses in your system. It requires a very good pre-amp ... which should output a balanced signal."

"Medals to everyone and a rebel princess to the AAA Technology inventor!"

- Toby Tingskog, dagogo.com

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"These are the amplifiers that you are looking for."

Benchmark's Jedi, Rory Rall

Benchmark's Jedi, Rory Rall shows a storm trooper the AHB2 power amplifier at the NAMM Show.

Rory then waved his hand and was heard to say; "These are the amplifiers that you are looking for." The storm trooper immediately walked away with a stack of AHB2 power amplifiers.