Reviews

AHB2 - "I Was Struck by Just How Much Focus and Clarity Was on Offer"

"This is an amplifier with very serious slam, and – even better for those with less sensitive speakers, big rooms or just a hankering for ‘just in front of the PA stack’ listening levels – it keeps it all together however loud you decide to play things."

"If that doesn't make you smile every time you listen, I don't know what will."

- Andrew Everard, Hi-Fi News

"... the widest A-wtd S/N ratio of any amplifier I've measured in some 30 years."

- Paul Miller, Hi-Fi News

AHB2 - "Dynamic, open, with quick, taut bass - yet with the silky ease of the best tube amp"

"Like the Benchmark D/As and A/D, the company believes that great measurements correlate to great sound. In the case of the AHB2 I totally agree."

"The AHB2’s sonic character is dynamic, open, with quick, taut bass - yet with the silky ease of the best tube amp. But tube amps don’t have the energy and speed in the transients, nor bass, that the Benchmark possesses."

"I can’t wait to get two more for a full-high-end home cinema amp test in my big A/V room. For now, based on mostly stereo listening, it receives, with certainty, an Everything Audio Network Stellar Sound Award."

- John Gatski, Everything Audio Network

AHB2 - "Lowest Noise and Distortion Power Amp I Have Measured"

"The new Benchmark AHB2 is the result of considerable research and patents on its resultant circuitry. The intent was to make it an ultra low distortion design. I would have to say they succeeded as it is the lowest noise and distortion power amp I have measured and I have measured a LOT of power amps in my career."

"The S/N ratio was about 131.6 dB. Pretty impressive, and this is the lowest output noise level I have seen in any power amplifier I have measured! (Editor's note: Benchmark measured 3 dB better when input was terminated with 60 Ohm impedance input.)"

"When connected in bridge mode, power was close to 400W into an 8 ohm load."

- Bascom H. King, BHK Labs

DAC2 HGC - "One of the Highest Resolutions I have Measured"

"Note that I've had to extend the vertical scale to –160 dBFS to reveal the noise floor. The drop in the level of the noise floor with 24-bit data indicates that the DAC2 offers 21-bit resolution, which is state-of-the-art performance."

"With the very low level of noise and superb linearity, the DAC2's reproduction of an undithered 16-bit tone at exactly –90.31 dBFS was essentially perfect."

"Even driving a very demanding 600 ohm load, the DAC2 offered very low levels of analog distortion, with the third harmonic the highest in level, at –116 dB (0.00015%). Other than the second and fifth, all the other harmonics lie at close to –130 dB. Intermodulation distortion was also superbly low, again even into 600 ohms."

"Summing up the Benchmark DAC2 HGC's measured performance is easy: It's simply superb."

- John Atkinson, Stereophile

ADC16 - "Numbers That We Come to Expect From This Engineering-Driven Company"

"The noise floor is an impressive approximate -120 dBFS but the distortion takes quite a reduction of input level to get there – approaching 0.0001%!"

"All in all, the basic measurement parameters of the Benchmark ADC16 are in or near the top of A/D converter performance standards — numbers that we come to expect from this engineering-driven electronics company."

- Bascom H. King, BHK Labs

DAC1 - "A clean, lean digitizing machine"

"The DAC1 was created with three target users in mind: the professional studio, home use by audio professionals, and audiophiles. Indeed, the DAC1 has been well received by studios and has made inroads into the audiophile community. It is feature-laden and smartly laid out."

"It’s more than a DAC, it’s a pretty doggone good preamp too!"

"It presents hyper-nuanced, super clean sound."

"The Benchmark is a clean, lean digitizing machine. It does set the standard at its price point for pure, unadulterated digital signals coming to your nearest amp(s)."

"If you’re after the most measurably perfect CD sound and endless detail, put it on your own test bench – your audio rack."

- Doug Schroeder, dagogo