AHB2 Award - "Most Wanted" - Stereo Times 2022 Publishers Choice Award
The Stereo Times "2022 Most Wanted List" - Amps & Preamps
Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 Power Amplifier
"Merriam-Webster defines a benchmark as "something that serves as a standard by which others may be measured or judged." This is what the AHB2s has become for me."
"The Class-H Benchmarks give me what I was searching for; great sound, lightweight, and cool operation at an affordable price. They can be operated in either stereo or monoblock mode."
"I initially scoffed at the Benchmark website claims and did not consider trying them because they did not "cost enough." I was very wrong. I experienced equal or better performance to more expensive Class A/B amplifiers without the weight, expense, or heat."
"Benchmark AHB2s offer high-quality but affordable performance."
"A pair of AHB2s are now part of my dedicated summertime amplification for my Sound Lab 545PX loudspeakers."
- Don Shaulis, The Stereo Times
The Stereo Times "2022 Most Wanted List" →
Read the Full AHB2 Review by Don Shaulis →
Another AHB2 Review in Stereo Times:
"Is the AHB2 the “perfect amplifier?” The truth is that it could be when paired synergistically with certain components and speakers."
"What is perhaps most impressive about the AHB2 is its very natural presentation of brass horns, piano and percussion in general."
"The Benchmark AHB2 is a powerful and efficient amplifier with prodigious low levels of noise and distortion. The fact that it is also very musical and non-fatiguing, courtesy of THX’s patented AAA™ technology, is the icing on the cake. Benchmark Media and THX have a lot to be proud of for the development and implementation of the new technology the AHB2 represents."
"The AHB2 provides deep, impactful, and articulate bass, a very musical and transparent midrange, and ultra-clean high frequency reproduction."
- Frank Alles, Stereo Times
Also in Reviews
DAC3 Review - Alan Sircom, hi-fi+
"A Damn Good, No-Frills Digital Converter"
"Benchmark Media Systems’ no-nonsense approach to all things audio is rare today."
"Uniformly Good"
"This is a DAC that’s uniformly good at everything. It resolves well, has good imaging properties."
"It makes a balanced, honest sound that allows you to sit and listen to music for hours. That is what makes Benchmark’s products consistently popular with audio engineers. You don’t want ‘bright’ if you sit at a mixing desk 10 hours a day. "
"Leave No Trace"
"It also has the latest version of Benchmark’s jitter attenuation system (UltraLock3) and doubles down on the digital demon with its multi-mode asynchronous USB system."
"Benchmark also uses the distortion compensation facilities built into the ESS chip to reduce second and third order distortion."
"The net result is a DAC that delivers lower distortion, lower noise, less passband ripple, faster signal switching and locking onto signals and a more linear frequency response."
"The Benchmark Media Systems DAC3 B is very much in the ‘leave no trace’ school of good audio."
- Alan Sircom, hi-fi+
DAC3 - Award Nominee - Best Digital Audiophile Product of 2024 (Cost No Object)
2024 Nominees
- Benchmark Media DAC3 B DAC, $1895
- Bricasti M3 DAC, $6000
- Bricasti M19 CD-SACD Player, $10,000
- T+A DAC 200, $7620
- Weiss Engineering Helios DAC, $21,995
"There was some debate about whether anybody can hear the differences above a good Chi-Fi DAC like the Topping D90. Unless you are missing most of your high-frequency hearing, you can hear where a high-end DAC makes a difference."
The Bricasti M3 is a great example of that performance in a $6,000 DAC."
"The Benchmark DAC3 B is an audiophile DAC, with pro audio roots, that punches way above its weight."
LA4 Review - Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com
"Benchmark Media Systems made its reputation in both pro audio and audiophile circles by designing gear with extraordinarily low noise and distortion, and selling it at reasonable prices."
"What Makes the Benchmark LA4 Preamp So Special?"
"A high-quality volume control is much of what makes a superior preamp shine, and the Benchmark’s volume control is outstanding. The Benchmark LA4 uses a bank of precision resistors switched by gold-contact relays to set volume in 256 steps of 0.5 decibels each."
"If accurate reproduction is your wish, you won’t find a preamp with meaningfully better objective performance than the Benchmark LA4, especially one made in the United States at anything near the LA4’s price."
"Very few preamps at any price reach the LA4’s level of objective performance."
"On the subjective end of things, the Benchmark LA4 preamp puts the lie to the old audiophile myth that neutrality means clinical, cold, or sterile sound. Instead, here neutrality means musical, involving sound, with precise, stable imaging, a sense of space (if one is on the recording), and exceptionally truthful timbres."
- Mike Prager, FutureAudiophile.com