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AHB2 Review - Russtafarian, AudioCircle.com
T.H.E. Show - Newport Beach 2014
"The more time I spend with Benchmark products, the more I'm impressed"
AHB2 - "Revealed a whole new layer of chorused vocals, reverb trails and swirling ambient space"
"Wow! What a great weekend. One of the highlights for me was hearing the Benchmark amp in my own system. Rory Rall graciously allowed me to take his back-up amp home Friday night. Paired with my DAC2 HGC, I was pretty stunned by what I heard. I expected quiet, resolution & transparency. What I didn't expect was the way the system relaxed and allowed the music to just flow. Playing the new Beck LP, the amp revealed a whole new layer of chorused vocals, reverb trails and swirling ambient space. Pretty impressive."
"The other Benchmark moment I'll share was at Mark Waldrep's AIX table. Mark had an Oppo player sending identical feeds to a Benchmark DAC2 HGC and an Oppo HA-1 DAC/ headphone amp with Oppo PM-1 headphones plugged into each. Once levels were set, comparing the two DACS was as easy as swapping phones. After listening back and forth for a few minutes, I looked at Mark and asked "am I hearing what I think I'm hearing?" He just nodded and smiled. The DAC2 was doing a much better job of driving the PM-1's than the HA-1. Ouch!"
"Call me a fan boy, but the more time I spend with Benchmark products, the more I'm impressed."
Thanks to Mal Kenney of Part-Time Audiophile for snapping this shot of Rory & I."
- Russtafarian, audiocircle.com
Also in Reviews
AHB2 - A-Rated Recommended Power Amplifier - Stereophile
AHB2 - Receives Stereophile's Highest "A" Rating for Power Amplifiers
"Benchmark's AHB2 makes use of THX Corporation's Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA) technology, in which a low-power feed-forward amplifier drives a low-bias class-AB output section."
- Stereophile, 2023
"Much more apparent low-level detail in already-familiar recordings" - Kalman Rubinson
"A tonal balance that sounded more 'right' than any of [the other amps on hand]." - Kalman Rubinson
"An extraordinary amplifier." - John Atkinson
LA4 - Class A Recommended Preamplifier - Stereophile
LA4 - Receives Stereophile's Highest "Class A" Rating for Preamplifiers
"Benchmark's usual approach to design is to out-spec the competition, and so it is here. Like other Benchmark equipment he has tested, the affordable LA4 challenged the resolution of John Atkinson's test instruments, with 'superb' channel separation, 'extremely low noise, and virtually no power-supply-related spuriae.'"
"Benchmark's LA4 is the widest-bandwidth, widest-dynamic-range, lowest-noise, lowest-distortion preamplifier I have encountered." - John Atkinson
"In his listening room, Kalman Rubinson compared the LA4 to a cable—and couldn't hear any difference. He concludes, 'the LA4 is probably the most transparent and revealing audio component I've ever used. It does not seem to leave any fingerprints on the sound.'"
- Stereophile, 2023
DAC3 - Class A+ Recommended Processor - Stereophile
DAC3 HGC, DAC3 B - Receive Stereophile's Highest "Class A+" Rating
"The DAC3 B is a stripped- down, lower-priced version of the DAC3 HGC, which omits the headphone amplifier, balanced and unbalanced analog inputs, volume, mute, and polarity controls." - Stereophile
"The DAC3 was all about depths, in several respects...I heard deeper into the music."
"All I can say is Wow!"
- John Atkinson
"In a Follow-Up, JCA wrote of using the Benchmark processor with the same company's AHB2 power amp—a combination of high source output voltage and modest amplifier gain that he describes as 'optimal for minimizing noise and distortion' —and reported hearing 'richer and more interesting' reproduction of very subtle details."
- Stereophile