With that silence you hear music that was obscured before.
The other night I wanted celebrate a big win by one of my sports teams. So I cranked up 2112 by RUSH because it was a Toronto team that won.
I am listening on headphones via the HPA4, my Meze Empy phones are not even supposed to be detail kings like the Focal Utopia, I start hearing echo in one track that never heard before and I knew this track for 40 years. This echo, purposefully added by the musicians, added a nice quality to the song. I am like where the heck did that echo come from. You feel like you are hearing all the music with this gear and I get so immersed into the music. |
The Benchmark HPA4 (same as the LA4 + headphone amp) is the best audio piece I have ever owned. Just love it.
BTW - Does the new Absolute Sound have a review of the Yamaha NS5000? I do not see it online. For my System #2, I am going to be hooking up an all Benchmark system with the NS5000. AHB2 x 2 + HPA4 + DAC3B + Benchmark XLR + Benchmark speaker cable. Neutrality is what I want in this system. I just got the AHB2 (being shipped) and it is going to be great with the HPA4. Just need to buy the NS5000 now. |
Yes, I have heard similar about various entities.
The reason I was interested on the review was not to read about the sound quality. I have demoed them so I already know. I want to learn more about the road map for the NS line of speakers. Sometimes these reviews go into the business side of things. It is impossible to get any feedback from Yamaha as a consumer. Though a dealer is trying to get more info for me at the moment by contacting Yamaha themselves.. |
I owned the Benchmark DAC3 and AHB2 so I know the sound well. The LA4 is supposed to be just like the AHB2, that is silent as space. With that in mind I was considering pairing the preamp with a warm sounding amp. Those plans are in the back burner because I am going to demo a speaker that would require me to use DSP for my room. If that demo goes pair shaped, I will likely go back to the LA4. Though I would likely get the headphone version since that headphone amp is getting raves reviews, I do not have any headphones but you never know.
In my situation, if the HPA4 becomes a candidate again (if I do not need DSP), I would contact Rory Rail at Benchmark and ask him for a 30 day free home trial.
If I had a warmish sounding speaker I would consider the LA4/HPA4 with a neutral sounding amp such as the AHB2. My frame of reference was the AHB2 with a KEF LS50 and also Audience 1+1 V3. Both were just slightly warm to offset the stark neutrality of the AHB2. |
@noble100 Funny that I am thinking of going the opposite direction as you. Being on the "other side" for a while with the Benchmark gear I would recommend you try the AHB2 amp and the LA4 preamp on the 30 day FREE trial. That is a neutral combo and it was very good with my slightly warm KEF LS50. You may also want to try A'gon professional reviewer, @Dougles_Shroeoder, method of connecting the AHB2. I wish I had tried this when I owned the AHB2, just for curiosity sake. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/doug-schroeder-method-double-ic/post?highlight=double%2BAHB2&...BTW - I have heard the Merrill amps that were $15K before the latest line came out. I think the AHB2 is still something to listen 1st, especially since it is a free home trial. |
@noble100 For what it's worth, I demoed the Magico A3 with the Mark Levinson $20K each separates, I think the preamp was the 326S (the latest top of the line in 2019). I inserted the AHB2 amp instead of the ML mono amps and the sound went down in quality. It seemed like the sound was brought back into the speaker. The ML amps pushed the sound away from the speakers. I attributed this to not enough power from a single AHB2.
In terms of clarity and low noise. I did not notice that much of a difference with the complete ML stack vs having the AHB2 amp in the mix. Maybe the preamp's sound signature dominated the setup. The sound was not as clear as with my DAC3 + AHB2 at home. However, the ML sound was actually better for my ears.
You may want to investigate a used ML 585 integrated which is somewhat close to the sound of the ML separates and can be found today used for $5K - $6K. I was told the 585 is still better than the new 5000 series except for a slightly older DAC.
Not exactly what you asked but maybe interesting to you. |
@nedkuehn - Benchmark is selling the LA4 | HPA4 | AHB2 very well. I have made 3 orders in the last 4 months and they are always running out. I hope to get my amp this month after ordering it 3 weeks ago. I inquired with Rory Rail, sales guy at Benchmark, about it and he said sales are very strong. It is not just supply constraints. So audiophiles may skip the Benchmark gear but a lot of others are not.
I believe I heard your MBL speaker at a show and also the a few other omni speakers at various shows. Loved them. I had an Audience 1+1 V3 speaker, which is an omni, but never could get it right due to space constraints. However, I think I was also prejudiced about what the correct sound was, imagining, soundstage, etc... I should have remembered the speaker my dad had when I was a kid, the Allison 2. It put music out all over the room unlike most current speakers. Loved the music back then and never thought a second about imaging, soundstage, etc... |
@nedkuehn You did what I am hoping to do with the HPA4. I was going to get the Mola Mola Makua at close to $20K but I kept reading that the LA4 is like a $20K preamp and also silent like the Makua. So I tried the HPA4 and I came to the same conclusion you did. I took it one step further by buying the AHB2 amp a few weeks ago and hope to get delivery next week. The plan was to get a Luxman m900u or Coda #16 to flavor the sound, but since the HPA4 was so good I wanted to give the AHB2 a try for 1/5th the cost. Even if I want that additional flavor with the amps I have a second system where the AHB2 can be used.
There are a few folks on Whats Best Forum having both a $20K preamps and the LA4, that are stating the same observations as you. They also have very expensive sources components and amps. |
@fast I hated headphones since I thought they sounded awful and gave me fatigue. The HPA4 was reputed to be one of the best headphone amps in the world. So for $500 more than the LA4 I thought it would be a good idea to get the HPA4, just in case I go back to the dark side.
Now after 3 months of mostly headphone only listening I can say I was missing out by not paying attention to headphones for the past decade. Today, I use a Meze Empyprean headphone and it is incredible. Still not as great as a 2 channel but great in it’s own way. The HPA4 is an incredible value when you also consider the headphone aspect + the 2 channel. The beauty of the HPA4 is that you get a mini AHB2 inside the HPA4. You can definitely hear the silence.
Music Direct is also where I buy my next speaker, the Yamaha NS5000. It has been a pleasure dealing with them so far. The Benchmark gear will drive that speaker (using 2 AHB2's)
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Going from the warm sound to no sound maybe something to see if you would like with a home trial first. What amps and source do you have? |
@arafiq The AMT designer, Vlad, told me the same today. Minimum of 50 hours. However, I see others saying 100-150 for some caps that my unit has. This DAC will used mostly with the RAAL SR1a headphones and the CODA CSiB. I think it will be amazing.
The AMT will also get playtime with the Benchmark stack too. I was told I may not be able have the RCA and XLR DAC outputs connected at the same time with the AMT DAC. Unlike my Benchmark DAC3B which has no problem with RCA and XLR outputs connected at the same time to the CODA integrated and HPA4 preamp. Not a big deal to work around that though. |
It looks like I blabbered a lot on this thread. So here is one more:
I have some incredible sound in my office now. It is a small room with a big Thiel CS3.7 speaker. The system is composed of the following:
1) Benchmark DAC3B (connected to XLR1 on HPA4)
2) Benchmark HPA4
3) Benchmark AHB2 x 2
4) Benchmark StarQuad XLR between all the gear listed above
5) Audience FrontRow speaker cable with SpeakON amp connections
I also have 3 other sources connected to the HPA4:
- XLR2: Sony SCD-1 SACD (no DSP used)
- RCA1: Magnum Dynalab 102 tuner (no DSP used)
- RCA2: AudioMirror Tubadour III SE DAC (shipped tomorrow, will use DSP)
I mentioned earlier in the 11-17-2019 post that if I were to get a big speaker and use DSP I would not be able to use a Benchmark preamp. That was a wrong statement. I discovered ROON Convolution files that allows the application of DSP before the ROON server sends the bits to the DAC. I had these Convolution files remotely created for me by a professional sound engineer (a real star at this). They run on my ROON server which sends the bits to my Benchmark DAC3B (or AMT3SE DAC) and then that outputs analog to the Benchmark preamp.
This is such a good sounding system now. The only change I will ever need to to this office system is recalibrate the Convolution files if I move to a new house.
I should add that I also added Fibre optical streaming via a few components to the DAC3B. With the highly resolving Benchmark stack it was so easy to hear the improvement over my old microRendu streamer. So good that I bought a second set of the same streaming gears for the AMT3SE that is on it’s way. |
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