AHB2 Driving Susvara Headphones - The Headphones Community
Benchmark AHB2 - The Power Amplifier for your Headphone
"The Benchmark AHB2 is a power amp meant to power speakers. There seems to be an interest in it for hard to power headphone enthusiasts on the forum even though Benchmark makes the HPA4 which is a headphone amp. That said, folks trying to drive the Hifiman HE-6 and Susvara gravitates towards this piece of gear."
"Finally, I pulled the trigger on the AHB2 and couldn’t be happier."
"None of these have been provided to me. I bought everything pictured."
"As Golden Sound put it, it is the objectively best measuring power amp and it shows. The THD+N numbers are off the charts (technically reverse of that as in they are so low that they won’t show up in a plot; think obscene numbers of zeros before a digit shows up)."
"How do you connect headphones to the AHB2 (which is a speaker amp): This is likely the most asked question and one I struggled when I was starting out."
"For this you want a SpeakON to female XLR-4 cable."
"But wait, people say I need a resistor box/attenuator so that I don’t blow up my headphone: Naah! As long as you are driving hard to drive, low sensitivity headphones like the Susvara or HE-6, you really do not need a resistor box."
"Parting thoughts: To conclude, if you want to drive the Susvara or HE-6, I cannot recommend anything better. To add, I run the HD800s along with my trusty HE-560 v1 on it as well, and they sound glorious. Also, as a parting note, if you judge THX as the tech that dictates the sound signature of the 789 – think again. The AHB2 is not at all sterile as that amp. Also, Benchmark is an excellent company. They have a 30-days no-gimmick return policy, if I hadn’t liked it, I’d have returned it; but boy do I love it."
- adnan0819, The Headphones Community
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