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 Review - Mike Prager, Future Audiophile
"For years, the audio world acknowledged one main contender (at least at sub-five-figure pricing) for the quietest, cleanest, most neutral power amplifier around. That was the Benchmark AHB2, whose specifications are still, for all practical purposes, unsurpassed, even by today’s excellent Class-D amps."
"10 years after its release, the Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 stereo power amp is still a standard-bearer in clean, neutral sound in the audiophile world."
"I greatly enjoyed having a pair of AHB2s in my system – their purity, neutrality, and seemingly unlimited power provided a clear window on the music and a lot of joy."
"I especially appreciated the AHB2’s smooth, well-integrated treble, free of splashiness or grain, and its natural reproduction of the human voice."
- Mike Prager, Future Audiophile
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."
"In our discussion, he related his highly positive experience in driving even his largest, $55k Majestic 945 panels with the $7,000 pair of Benchmark Media AHB2 monoblocks, along with the $3,050 LA4 Preamplifier and factory XLR cables."
"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."
"My audition of the Benchmark Media AHB2 amplifiers underscores the reason Dr. West is so taken by it, and confirms the design is best described as a watershed moment in the high-end audio industry."
- 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