HPA4 Review - Steven Stone, Home Theater Review
HPA4 - "At the Top of Your Must-Audition List"
HPA4 and AHB2 - "The Quietest Rig I've Heard (or Not Heard)"
"The HPA4 combined with the Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier ranks as the quietest rig I've heard (or not heard). Even with the gain up to full with no signal, there is no hiss, hum, or buzz, even when I placed my ears within a in inch of the drivers on 89 dB sensitive loudspeakers."
"The Benchmark HPA4 exhibits virtually no noise, whether employed as a stereo preamp or headphone amplifier, and his highly transparent, with no audible colorations."
"As a Headphone Amplifier, the HPA4 was First Rate"
"Whether it was my most power-hungry headphones, which currently are the new Abyss Diana Phi, or my most sensitive IERs, such as the Empire Ears Phantoms, there was no added noise or lack of adequate gain."
HPA4 - Front Panel
"The HPA4's front panel is a simple affair, with an on/off button on the extreme left side followed on the right by quarter-inch stereo and XLR balanced headphone connections and a large volume control that has four independent 256-step attenuators in half-decibel increments. This permits the volume level adjustments for the line level and headphone outputs to be completely independent from each other."
HPA4 - Touch Screen
"The HPA4 also has a full color touchscreen for setup and control."
"The front panel controls offer several welcome features, including the ability to control both the headphone and line level outputs separately or ganged together. Unlike many preamp/headphone amplifiers, which automatically mute the line level when a headphone is plugged in, the HPA4 gives users the option of using both at the same time."
HPA4 - Rear Panel
"In addition to its pair of stereo outputs, the HPA4 has one more output: a line-level summed mono, which could be useful in connecting a subwoofer if yours doesn't have stereo inputs."
Conclusions
"The HPA4 occupies a unique place, not only due to its features and performance, but also its price. Sure, there are plenty of decent line-level preamplifiers, DACs with built-in volume controls, and scads of headphone amps, but to get the same level of ergonomics and performance as the HPA4 for the same money from separate components could be a challenging proposition, depending on your needs."
"Benchmark calls the HPA4 a "Reference stereo headphone amplifier and reference line amplifier," and I found no reason to dispute this. It performed at reference level with whatever I threw at it. It is ergonomically elegant with a well-laid-out remote and front panel controls. Also, its headphone amplifier was able to support a wide variety of headphones and is the first component to utilize THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (AAA) technology."
"If you are looking for a preamplifier/headphone amplifier that you can live with happily for a long time, you should consider the Benchmark HPA4 at the top of your must-audition list."
- Steven Stone, HomeTheaterReview.com
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