HPA4 - "2018 Product of the Year" - Everything Audio Network
HPA4 - "Top Product of 2018" - All Categories
For 2018, Everything Audio Network has selected just one product for the honor of "Product of the Year". That product is the Benchmark HPA4 headphone/line amplifier.
"One of the most transparent audio products I have ever heard at any price"
"Marvelously open and clean"
Relay-Controlled Volume and Input Selection
"This new custom designed, 256-step relay volume control HP amp/line stage is incredible in its transparency and ability to get out of the way when listening to accurate sources with accurate headphones. Just as impressive, the line stage delivers volume control that many an esoteric analog or digital preamp could only dream of."
THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA™) Technology
"The HPA4 is a co-design by Benchmark and THX, Ltd. using the THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA™) technology that was implemented in the Benchmark AHB2 amplifier a couple of years ago. According to Benchmark, the THX AAA™ reduces harmonic, intermodulation and crossover distortion by 20 to 40 dB to guarantee a realistic and fatigue-free listening experience."
The Benchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier Introduced the AAA™ Technology
Listening Impressions
"I cannot stress enough how the HPA4 just gets out of the way so you can listen to your music and the components in your chain. The HPA4 is sonically neutral, distortion free and deeply dynamic. At any level, it will let the music shine through with no added color."
More About the Volume Control
"The rotary relay gain control features 256 steps in 0.5 dB increments. The HPA4 includes four independent 256-step attenuators: two for the left and right headphone outputs, and two for the left and right line outputs."
Remote Control and System Integration
"The HPA4 includes IR remote control and can be operated using the optional Benchmark remote. You can use it with Benchmark’s highly rated DAC3 converters, as well as any other source with an analog output. When paired with a Benchmark DAC, a single remote control will operate both units."
Touch Screen
"Besides the impressive performance, the HPA4 is Benchmark’s first product with a LCD touch screen that enables most functions of the unit. The screen provides access to advanced features such as balance control, input level offsets, input names, screen dimming, remote control, and function locking. Help screens explain the special functions. The HPA4 includes independent on-screen mute buttons for the headphone and line outputs. Both can also be muted with the volume knob or with the optional remote control."
Low-Level Listening Tests
"The key to a superior volume control is how it sounds when you turn it down ..."
"... you should be able to hear the gentle room reverb of drum cymbal or ringing piano note decay as you turn the volume down."
"The Benchmark HPA4 with its precision relay and ultra quiet amp section, sounds the same at reduced levels as it does when it is turned up."
" When I turned down level, I could still hear the exquisite, precise imaging of the brushed drum cymbals, the snare rim shots and the tasteful Steinway piano notes. I am talking about real musical accuracy, not some euphonic coloration definition of being musical. I am talking about the way music sounds live in a great room, dimensional and full. That is what I hear from the HPA4."
Headphone Listening Impressions
"For headphone listening, I had a long list of demo cans, including my AKG K702 Anniversary, Sennheiser HD-650, AKG K812, Oppo PM1 planar magnetic headphones and the Audeze LCD-XC... the HPA4 handled all of them with ease."
"The Benchmark HPA4 is one of the most transparent headphone amps I have ever heard — at any price. Just as impressive is the line stage, which delivers volume control that many an esoteric analog or digital preamp could only dream of."
Using the HPA4 as a Preamplifier
"The line output was routed to a Benchmark AHB2 amp and a pair of Martin Logan Impressions electrostatics.
"As a line-stage the HPA4 was quite adept ... I found myself relying on the HPA4, as well, for other product reviews because it is so transparent. From an accuracy standpoint, it sounds better than $20,000 preamps I have heard. And oh-so clean."
Conclusion
"To say I am impressed with Benchmark HPA4 would be an understatement. One of the best HP amps and line stages I ever have heard in terms of transparency and accuracy. The ultra-low distortion, its ability to drive any headphone, plenty of connections and the cool factor of the LCD screen menu selection: it is darn near perfect."
"Based on my impressions, the Benchmark HPA4 receives two Everything Audio Network Stellar Sound Awards. One for its headphone amp and one for its line stage. Folks, it is that good."
- John Gatski, Everything Audio Network
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"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
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