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
Benchmark System Review - Ricky Dasler, Living Sound, New Zealand
"With over 40 years as an audiophile and more than half those years as a hi-fi retailer, I feel I’ve finally put together a stereo that ticks all my sonic boxes. Those being in order of priority, dynamics, scale, tonal accuracy, fatigue free resolution and soundstage."
"For the last 25 years I’ve been fortunate to have a dedicated listening room. I use acoustic treatments from Real Traps, Vicoustic and Primeacoustic."
"My Benchmark components consist of the DAC3 B (connected to a Naim NDS streamer), LA4 line amplifier and two AHB2 power amplifiers run in bridged mono mode. All cables are Benchmark too."
"The Benchmark gear in my system has brought what I have wanted in my list of sonic priorities as listed above and then some. They have delivered way beyond what I thought could be possible in my system in my room."
"I’m delighted and stunned daily as my vast music collection comes to life on a whole new level."
- Ricky Dasler, Living Sound, Nelson New Zealand.
Benchmark Converters at Abbey Road - Geoff Pesche
"What are the Latest Advancements in Mastering?"
"Geoff Pesche weighs in on how the mastering team at Abbey Road Studios achieve first-class results." - Mix with the Masters
"The biggest sonic improvement in mastering in the last 5 or 6 years is D/A and A/D converters and that's very very important - what you have at the front and the back of the chain."
"We use fairly new Benchmark converters front and back."
"Abbey Road like a uniformity between the rooms so all of the rooms have the same A/D and D/A conversion."
- Geoff Pesche, Mastering Engineer, Abbey Road Studios
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+