I’ve not heard the latest iterations of class D so cannot comment on these amps, but I recently took delivery of a Benchmark amp, and it is incredibly quiet, dynamic, and clean thru 93db Verity Leonore speakers. I am streaming with a less than reference setup in my second system and yet, the amp is a revelation and surprise. Tracy Thorn’s voice on the 30-year recording of Amplified Heart gave me goose bumps right out of the box. I can understand the observation that midrange or voices may seem forward, but concert mixes can have the vocalist forward if you’re center row, close in and studio mix pull it this way often as well. This amp just doesn’t add much, if any sound of its own.
Tubes are what I have listened to for decades – Shindo in particular, coupled with very nice front-end components. The Benchmark, with a completely different presentation is thoroughly enjoyable. I’ll now need to upgrade my DAC and streamer to keep up with the Benchmark. The Benchmark makes me think of an audio mag cover a few years ago, it showed a high-end, well regarded tube amp and a SS state one and said something to the effect that if one is right, then the other must be wrong. In fact, they were both great amps.