Reviews
This is my second AHB2.
"This is my second AHB2. The first one has performed great for the past 5 years, in my primary music listening room, and I expect it will for many years to come. I bought this second AHB2 to upgrade my bedroom system. Its ability to provide clear and precise audio at low listening levels is why I purchased it. The quality Class D amplifier that it replaced could not provide such clarity and precision at low volume listening. I have the full Benchmark stack in my 5-year-old system, so I'm already thinking about adding an LA4 to this new AHB2. I highly recommend all of the Benchmark products I have purchased! Benchmark customer service has always been available to answer my technical questions. I have not had a single problem with my "old" AHB2, LA4, and DAC3 L."
— Robert F. (5/5)
The AHB2 is the best
"The AHB2 is the best amplifier I ever owned. I bought it with the LA4 pre-amplifier as an upgrade from an integrated amp. I also upgraded my component connections from unbalanced (RCA) to balanced (XLR). A huge improvement in music clarity and presence. I hear fainter instruments and voices that were not audible before. Best owners manual I have seen in a long while. Highly recommended."
— Daniel P. (5/5)
So far so good. I
"So far so good. I really didn’t expect to hear to much of a difference from the old amplifier, but I did. It’s noticeably clearer not brighter but clearer. Give me a few months of listening and I will be able to say more maybe."
— Keith B. (5/5)
I completed my Benchmark system
"I completed my Benchmark system with this order. I am using 2 AHB2's and the LA4 as the centerpieces of my system. I am powering a pair of FOCAL Sopra N3 speakers. I auditioned the speakers at an audio store in Indianapolis prior to purchasing them. The Demo equipment was a pair of Pass Lab Mono Blocks and a Dan D'Agastino pre amp. Best I can figure close to $100,000 worth of equipment to drive the Focals. The sales guy was also my delivery guy so he also got to hear both systems. Neither he nor I can tell the difference between the Benchmark system I have and the exotic demo system at the store. I couldn't be more pleased with my Benchmarks!"
— Michael S. (5/5)
Delivers exceptional clean crip sound,
"Delivers exceptional clean crip sound, as promised. The promise was no exaggeration."
— John J. (5/5)
A superb amplifier that is a bargain for the price
"Over the past year, I’ve been steadily converting my system to an all-Benchmark system, and the results have been stunning. I’m posting this review to the AHB2 page, but it really applies to all the Benchmark products in the signal chain. First, I should mention that I have excellent speakers (GR-Research Bullys) that are well positioned in a reasonably well-treated living room. The speakers have a superb crossover design with excellent parts quality. Their wonderful clarity has allowed me to get the most out of the Benchmark components. At the front end, a PS Audio Powerplant 20 feeds clean power to my system. The rest of the system looks like this: Auralic Aires G2 streamer/server > USB > Benchmark DAC3 HGC > Benchmark balanced interconnects > Benchmark LA4 preamp > Benchmark balanced interconnects > one AHB2 amp running in stereo mode > Benchmark speaker cables > GR-Research Bully speakers. The speaker cables have the NL2 connectors at the amp end and very good mechanically tightening bananas at the speakers. These make solid and secure connections. I had been running very good GR-Research speaker cables (banana-banana), but had trouble with the banana plug interface at the AHB2. I could hear the degradation. I repeatedly switched back and forth to the Benchmark speaker cables, and finally realized that they took some time to fully break in. Now I think the sound through the Benchmark speaker cables is better than the GR cables, no doubt in part due to the excellent connectors. The overall sound of the system is better than anything I have been able to achieve in 20 years of evolution. I now feel that I have finally arrived at a place where I don’t need to go any further. Really! The Benchmark sound with these speakers is crystal clear and very transparent with precise imaging, super NON-FATIGUING detail, wonderful dynamics, and deep soundstage depth. I continue to hear new details in very familiar recordings. I know this sounds like a typical rah rah audiophile review, but these components really have taken the system to a new and much higher level. I should mention that I followed all the directions in the excellent manuals (thank you Benchmark!) as to gain settings and the use of balanced interconnects to get the most out of the system. For what my opinion is worth, I highly recommend these components. At these prices, they are a fantastic bargain. There are some things that could be better: • Full width boxes to make more room in the back. It’s very tight back there and can be awkward to connect and remove cables, especially on the AHB2. • The DAC should be able to handle higher res DSD. I have some DSD 128 files I cannot play, although DSD 64 files play perfectly using DoP. Maybe a DAC4? • I control volume with the LA4. The remote volume control changes volume too fast with no visible levels showing. I often find myself iterating the volume level to get where I want. Acceleration is nice to have, but it needs to be more gradual with visual feedback."
— Charlie H. (5/5)
The one amplifier I’ll ever need.
"I recently added the Benchmark AHB2 Power Amplifier to my system, and I have to say: this amplifier is remarkable. My system is built around a Benchmark DAC3 HGC, Cambridge Audio CXN100 streamer, Benchmark interconnects, and a pair of Philharmonic Audio BMR Tower speakers. The AHB2 drives the BMR Towers directly, and the combination has completely changed my expectations of what a power amplifier needs to be. The first thing that gets your attention about the AHB2 is how small it is. This is an incredibly compact amplifier, yet it delivers 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms and approximately 190 watts per channel into 4 ohms. It doesn’t look like a conventional high-powered amplifier, but the specifications and the engineering behind it are serious. And then you look at the measurements. The AHB2’s exceptionally low noise and distortion are extraordinary. Benchmark designed this amplifier around a combination of a feed-forward error-correction architecture and a highly efficient class-H output stage, incorporating THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier technology. The result is an amplifier with exceptionally low measured distortion, extremely low noise, and very high linearity. But specifications only tell part of the story. With the DAC3 HGC feeding the AHB2 and the BMR Towers revealing everything downstream, the first thing I noticed was how effortless the system sounds. There is an incredible sense of control and composure. Bass is tight and authoritative without sounding exaggerated. Complex passages remain clean and organized, and large dynamic swings arrive without the amplifier sounding stressed. The AHB2 also has an exceptionally low noise floor. With the system powered up and no music playing, there is essentially nothing coming from the speakers. Then the music begins, and the transition from silence to a full-scale recording is startling. That combination of silence, control, transparency, and dynamic capability is what makes this amplifier so impressive to me. The BMR Towers are revealing speakers, and the AHB2 seems perfectly suited to them. Rather than imposing a particular sonic personality, the amplifier simply gives the speakers a very clean, controlled signal. I don’t hear an amplifier trying to make the music warmer, brighter, thicker, or more dramatic. It simply gets out of the way. That’s exactly what I want from an amplifier. I also appreciate the protection and monitoring built into the AHB2. Benchmark has engineered the amplifier to monitor operating conditions and protect the amplifier and connected speakers, while the front-panel indicators provide useful information about its operating status. This feels like professional audio engineering rather than consumer-audio theater. Another detail I really appreciate is the connectivity. The AHB2 provides balanced XLR inputs, which makes perfect sense paired with the DAC3 HGC, along with its speaker outputs. Using Benchmark’s own balanced connections gives the entire front end a very clean, straightforward signal path. And then there’s the efficiency. An amplifier capable of this kind of performance in a chassis this small, without the enormous transformer and heatsinks associated with many traditional high-powered amplifiers, is an impressive engineering achievement. It takes up almost no space, generates relatively little heat, and doesn’t look like something that should be capable of driving a serious pair of full-range speakers. Yet it is. I’ve owned good audio equipment over the years, and one thing I’ve learned is that bigger and more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. The AHB2 is almost the opposite of that philosophy. Benchmark appears to have started with the engineering requirements and worked backward rather than building an enormous amplifier and then attaching an impressive story to it. That’s something I respect. I’m also particularly happy to have built this part of my system around American-designed and American-manufactured Benchmark equipment. The DAC3 HGC, AHB2, and Benchmark cables give me an exceptionally coherent signal path from my streamer all the way to the BMR Towers. After listening to the AHB2 in this system, I honestly don’t feel any need to look for a bigger amplifier, a more expensive amplifier, or an amplifier with a more exotic pedigree. The AHB2 is the one amplifier I want to own. It is extraordinarily quiet, exceptionally linear, compact, efficient, beautifully engineered, and powerful enough to drive my BMR Towers with authority. Most importantly, it lets the music—not the amplifier—take center stage. For me, this is what a great amplifier should be."
— MB (5/5)
What a sweet little mini
"What a sweet little mini amplifier! In addition to having some fine equipment from benchmark benchmark audio, Rory, the sales manager is an outstanding human being, and he knows his Audio stuff! On my initial hook up where I had questions I have an issue where I have a questions, he always the answers which solved all my initial concerns, I couldn’t be happier with the customer service and products, as he always picks up the phone on the first ring. When is that ever happened in the most recent time since Covid? Never, you should really consider buying these products, prior to spending an exuberant amount of money to have power, this unit has it especially bi-amped! All in all, benchmark. Audio hasfantastic Customer Service and always will stand behind their products. I couldn’t be happier with my Purchase, I plan on purchasing more equipment here in the near future. Thanks again for your wonderful support. Darryl SS."
— Darryl S. (5/5)
Arguably, the best amp for
"Arguably, the best amp for HiFiMan Susvara at any price point. Susvara owners looking for an amp should look no further and get the AHB2. It really makes the Susvara shine and shows what it can achieve when connected to the AHB2 with the XLR4-NL4 headphone adapter cable. End game amp for me!"
— Partha D. (5/5)
The final link. . .
"I recently purchased the LA4 pre-amp, and the difference from my 18 year-old pre-amp was revelatory. So I decided to replace the matching older amplifier with the AHB2. Although the power decreased from 200 to 100 wats per channel, the improvement in clarity, speed and (I assume) accuracy was astonishing! Plenty of power for my Revel Ultima Studio 2 (at any reasonable listening level), and of course a perfect match with the LA4. The decrease in gain (all XLR chain) from the older amp was easily compensated for by increasing the volume on the pre-amp, with no noticeable noise. There is no hiss coming from my speakers now, and music emerges from a silent background, with improved transient details and spatial resolution. Kudos! The only improvement from here would be to have two mono AHB2's! It's simply amazing how much quality is built into the AHB2 amplifier, for a price that is extremely high in value."
— Robert G. (5/5)
