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AHB2 Review - Hans Wetzel, SoundStage! Network
AHB2 - "Exceptional Value Award"
"If ever there were a giant-killer of an amp, this is it."
"Benchmark Media Systems’ modest-looking little AHB2 power amp may be hi-fi’s biggest bargain. It is one of the -- if not the -- quietest, most resolving amps I've heard. Time and again, without ever having intended to, I wound up hours deep in listening to the fringes of my music collection, thanks to the AHB2’s reference-level transparency and obscene athleticism."
"The AHB2 was, almost without qualification, astonishingly good. Spotting sonic differences among the ocean of class-AB amps offered for less than $10,000 can be challenging because those differences can be so subtle. But with the Benchmark, it was immediately apparent that I was listening to something special. Only one other amp has come close to matching the AHB2’s utter lack of noise and grain. I recall putting my ear practically on my speaker’s tweeter to hear only the faintest white noise from the Devialet 120, and I had much the same experience with the AHB2. There was just nothing there. Reading this on your screen, it might be difficult to imagine so total an absence of grain or noise floor in the sound of your own system. But let me tell you, the effect was profound."
"The AHB2 was incredibly transparent. It just tore down the cloud of ambiguity that burdens the sounds of, well, just about everything else I've heard."
"Wanting to hear how the AHB2 would handle richer, denser music, I cued up the high-resolution version of “Get Lucky,” from Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories (24/88.2 FLAC, Columbia). My concern about this monster single sounding in any way threadbare was misplaced. Pharrell Williams’s velvety chorus was supple and substantive, while the foundational bass guitar and kick drum were as solid as I could hope to hear them. The higher the fidelity of recording I threw at the Benchmark, the more rewarding my listening experience became."
- Hans Wetzel, SoundStage!
Also in Reviews
Why do you own Benchmark products? - AudioScienceReview.com
Why Did You Buy Benchmark Gear?
"I'm asking because clearly Benchmark is a highly regarded company here, and plenty of ASR members own Benchmark amplification/DACs. We know they are top of the heap in terms of measured performance, outdoing plenty of the competition in terms of typical distortion measurements."
- @MattHooper, AudioScienceReview.com
AHB2, LA4, DAC3
- Subtle aesthetics? Check.
- Unobtrusive size? Check.
- Solid build? Check.
- Made in America? Check.
- Transparent? Check.
- Best in class? Check.
- Superior performance proven by Amir? Check.
- Superior customer service? Check (and not just in audio world; best customer service I have experienced from any company, anywhere, ever).
- Expensive? For me, yes. Limit of my budget, but buy once cry once.
- Worth it? Yes.
- Would I do it all again? Absolutely.
- @KellenVancouver, AudioScienceReview.com
AXPONA Review - Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
"The afternoon before the start of the show I ran into John Siau of Benchmark Media Systems. He says to me quietly, “make sure you stop in our room, we have a surprise!” With curiosity suitably piqued, Co-Editor Jim Clements and I paid a visit ..."
"The results were pretty astonishing. A stable, enveloping stereo image that was devoid of any distortion whatsoever."
- Carlo Lo Raso, Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
AXPONA Show Report - Stereophile Magazine
"Sound was extremely well-integrated and controlled, and the bass memorable."
"The Note received signal through the introductory version of the company's Liquid Cables. Each cable contains 27,000 wires. The company's introductory Elephant memory player joined Benchmark Media's AHB2 power amps, DAC3 B D/A processor, and interconnects."
"With the aid of a forthcoming DEQX HDP4 processor that's due in the fall, the system sounded super on a 16/44.1 file of the famed rendition of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, recorded by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra for Reference Recordings."
- Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile Magazine