![]() Everything was in order and everything was in its place. I’ve heard this occur, in varying degrees, with many hifi components to various degrees but the AHB2 never suffered any of those issues. There are threatening frequencies all over the place here with dynamics in the potentially chaotic region, the potential for blooming and smearing in the midrange with muddy bass and bright voices plus inaccurate percussion. To be frank, the soundstage for this sequence of music is a mess. There will be no wincing or hiding behind the sofa with the AHB2.įrom jazz vocal to dub – a more contemporary release, Rootmasters’, Elephant Puddle (2007), featuring The Orb’s Alex Patterson and a chance for the Benchmark to display its bass qualities. You know that it won’t insert some nasty frequency to scare the life of you. That’s the sort of feeling that you get from this box. It does what it does and does it well and there’s plenty of time so kick back and release that tension because you’re in good hands. More than any of the above, though, was the ease which music was delivered to the ear. The Benchmark initially removed that noise to reveal more about each instrument while the improved clarity gave each instrument more of a say in the mix and a more prominent position. One thing that I did listen out for was the previously subdued nature of both the piano and the percussion which were often pushed back into the mix but also partially masked by noise. Both, backed by the similarly impressive low noise nature of the soundstage, had room to express themselves that enhanced the richness of their performance. If anything, if I was going to be overly picky, it might have been nice to have had a touch more insight and sparkle to add slightly more life into the vocal treatment but I’m being greedy here and probably butting up against the price point, as opposed to the design or its implementation.Īs for the instruments backing Staton, I was impressed by the tonal accuracy of the introductory strings and the clarinet. Her even-handed vocal delivery was very pleasant indeed. Staton’s vocal delivery was calm, even and smooth without any edginess to her delivery and certainly without any brightness or blooming during crescendos. More than that, I was impressed by the well behaved nature of the output. That said, my initial view of the sonic qualities of the the amp were good. This confirmed that, with hard to drive speakers, I would recommend grabbing two Benchmark amps and using them in mono block mode. Because of that, I had to up the gain on my pre-amp just a few clicks more than usual. Starting with Dakota Staton’s album ‘Round Midnight from the original Capitol release, issued in 1960, I connected the Benchmark to my Quad 57 electrostatics, which are not the easiest speakers to drive. ![]() The low-gain setting is designed to interface directly with Benchmark DAC2 converters.” SOUND QUALITY A rear-panel gain switch can be used to set the AHB2 at higher gain settings if necessary. The AHB2 is 17 dB quieter than some of the very best power amplifiers on the market. The power supply rails maintain a constant voltage during audio peaks.”īenchmark also talks about the low noise nature of the amplifier, “Most power amplifiers have far too much gain and consequently they suffer from poor noise performance. Maximum power output of the AHB2 does not vary with line voltage or audio loading. This active regulation is much more effective than capacitive energy-storage. ![]() This control loop responds to audio-frequency load changes and keeps the supply voltage constant without the use of a large bank of capacitors. ![]() Also, the company declares that, “…the AHB2 uses a resonant switching power supply that has a very fast control loop. ![]()
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