My humble review of the Benchmark AHB2 and LH4

Our brains/hearing acuity seem to gather general information kind of slowly.My recent(4 weeks ish)amp purchase had me turning down my sub 3db without measurements.My sub is driven from my preamp...lower amp/volume sensitivity left sub volume to high.I have lowered it a few times since,each time thinking it's right.A few days later i notice it may still be too high.I finally broke down and measured it and yep still a touch high.After setting by measurements all is good now.Anyway my point is it sounded fine each time i adjusted without measurements for a couple of days until a familiar recording exposed my mistake.Sometimes things aren't immediately obvious in our little hobby

 

Certainly. I’ve had similar experiences many times.

 

I like to think of it as "audio averaging "....getting the highest % of our music to sound great has to be the goal here right??

 

What preamp do you have again?

thanks

 

absolutely. some systems can squeeze out more drama and splash with some recordings but at the expense of others. no thanks!

 

Cary Audio SLP 05. 24db gain with balanced connections that i throttle back to about half that amount.

 

how is your shiny new exotic amp settling in?

 

Did they get the dies and moulds from Hafler?
The Hafler was great in it's day, I built mine.

 

Could be inspired by that design but the AHB2 is smaller: 11.04" W x 3.47" H x 8.33 " D, excluding feet and connectors

 

thats a whole lotta gain

 

When I had the SLP-05 … paired with a P3ESR which has slightly low sensitivity, the volume knob is at about say 15% max. Don’t know why they have so much gain. At least with the AHB2 you can cut the input gain to ‘even things’ out a bit.

 

Very happy with it.Incremental gains in imaging and midrange detail without any frequency tilt...while retaining the quick clean bass of my old McCormack

 

These seem like good speaker cables to try maybe when you get the new amp and assuming you like it.

Benchmark Speaker Cable - NL2 to Banana - 2 pole

 

seems reasonable, thanks for the info.

 

congrats, looks good too.

 

did you try reducing the level controls on the front panel of the Cary? this worked well for me.

 

Looks like the LA4 has 28dbu?

Benchmark LA4 Line Amplifier

 

It was a joke
There is only so many ways to layout a basic amp.

 

I did not. Thought to leave that to the max bcos there’s not markings or clicks.

 

that is the output, 19.5 V max, 28 dBu
With 12.3 V in, 24 dBu

4 dBu delta ~ 1.6 gain
Or 5 dB, 15 center ~ 10 trim

dBu is referenced to 0.775 V

The gain is adjustable 15 dB +/- 10

 

Benchmark cables dont cost a gazillion dollars.

Locking Power Cord

And their gear has among the best specs in the industry.

 

Thanks man !

 

Few say 'thanks' anymore lol
u r welcome

It's clever
You can individually adjust gain for each input, even bal vs unbalanced.
So all inputs will be at the same SPL volume level for a given volume position.

That gear is really nice and a bargain imo.

 

Of course thank you.

you just spent some time teaching me something.

im grateful for that.

yeah I love my AHB2 paired with the LA4 pre.

 

Sorry, reading and writing words makes my brain think too literally and I often miss the humor.