Buy one component and save 10% on up to 2 cables. Buy 2 components and get 4 free cables. Free shipping on USA orders over $700. Low-cost shipping to Canada.
Buy one component and save 10% on up to 2 cables. Buy 2 components and get 4 free cables. Free shipping on USA orders over $700. Low-cost shipping to Canada.
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by Benchmark Media Systems January 01, 2021
"Allow me to rave about the HPA4’s built-in headphone amp. Designed using similar technology as the AHB2 and licensed from THX (Benchmark calls it the THX-888 Amplifier), this is the cleanest, quietest, most neutral headphone amp I’ve ever heard."
"The HPA4 has no trouble playing music dynamically and precisely through any headphones I own."
"When the folks at Benchmark suggested a review of their HPA4 for Tape Op, my first reaction was, “Isn’t this aimed more at the audiophile market?” Benchmark’s Rory Rall replied that I should consider its use as a reference-grade monitor controller, with a world-class headphone amp built-in. He recommended I pair it with my Benchmark DAC3 B digital-analog converter and use it to drive my Benchmark AHB2 [Tape Op #111] power amp."
"When I previously reviewed the Benchmark AHB2, I described it as being as close to a straight wire with gain as I’ve ever heard – “a silent transmitter of musical energy.” I stand by that description after four years of living and listening to it."
"With the DAC3 B and HPA4 ahead of it, the whole signal chain runs silently and transparently."
"The HPA4 is built on the idea of avoiding any sort of bit-stripping volume control in the digital realm. So a full-output DAC sends it line-level audio."
"Inside the HPA4 is a precision relay-controlled analog attenuator, with exact channel-to-channel matching and a measurable/repeatable gain or attenuation (expressed in dB on the large color touch-screen front panel display). The volume knob is a 256-step precision encoder, driving relays that engage resistors, in 0.5 dB steps."
"You can memory-set a gain level for each input, so for instance, if you wanted to compare an analog source to a digital transfer, you can precisely level-match. Or (like I often do) measure an original LP release against a digital remaster. Or set your mixer’s output with what’s coming out of your digital rig. The possibilities are limited only by your line-level sources and the HPA4’s four inputs."
"Finally, in what may be a case of “burying the lede,” allow me to rave about the HPA4’s built-in headphone amp. Designed using similar technology as the AHB2 and licensed from THX (Benchmark calls it the THX-888 Amplifier), this is the cleanest, quietest, most neutral headphone amp I’ve ever heard."
"The HPA4 has no trouble playing music dynamically and precisely through any headphones I own."
"I don’t turn the HPA4 any louder than -30 dB, and lower than that for rock music. Putting it in numbers, the THX-888 headphone amp is capable of peak-to-peak voltage swings of 25V and an output of 1.5 amps. It puts out 6 watts into 16 ohms! This should give you the idea that this thing will drive any low-efficiency cans you want to plug in."
"For all this silence and neutrality you have to pay a pretty penny, but is it worth it? As with all pieces of your system, it depends. For a precision monitoring setup for mastering, detailed mixing situations, or even a top-shelf listening system, you’ll have to look hard (and maybe spend more) to get this close to the fabled “straight wire with gain” sound."
"I can’t think of anything else that will get you closer to the sound coming out of your sources. Combined with Benchmark’s DAC and power amp with excellent speakers and headphones plugged in, this is quite the monitoring chain."
"When playing music you love, it will fire all the pleasure synapses."
- Tom Fine, Tape Op
by Benchmark Media Systems July 22, 2025
"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.
by Benchmark Media Systems June 02, 2025
"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
by Benchmark Media Systems May 13, 2025
"Benchmark Media Systems’ no-nonsense approach to all things audio is rare today."
"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. "
"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+