CODA #16 vs Benchmark AHB2 | Yamaha NS500 Speaker

Last week I purchased a 11-month-old Benchmark AHB2 for the 6th time. I am actually $$ positive on the other 5 cumulative buys. The reason I got it again was that I love the sound of this amp, especially on the top end. My prior speakers were Thiel CS3.7 and KEF LS50. The LS50 sounded great with the AHB2 but it is not full range and the AHB2 was not really taxed that much. I even had AHB2 monos with both speakers. The Thiel was not as dynamic as I wanted it to be with both the stereo and mono AHB2 (especially on the low end).

My KRELL DUO 175XD (sold), CODA #8 (sold), and Parasound A21+ (sold) sounded more alive with the Thiel CS3.7. It was the bottom end that those amps sounded better than the AHB2. However, the AHB2 was preferred to all those amps in the top-end, though the KRELL’s super buttery smoothness is something I miss.

I now have 2 new speakers, the Yamaha NS5000 and the Magnepan LRS+. The Yamaha is in my kid’s playroom / audio room (Livingroom), 15x20x25. The LRS+ is in a small office, 12x11x9 (plus a 4-foot closet for desk and monitors). The LRS+ is like the Thiel CS3.7 with regards to the amp requirements, so I never even considered the AHB2. The 2 best amps I have had on the LRS+ are the CODA #16 and the Sanders Magtech.

The Yamaha NS5000 is another story. It is a much better speaker than the LRS+. It is also better than my RAAL SR1a earphones + RAAL VM-1a amp, which I never thought I would say. This speaker is also not that hard to drive. The Yamaha M5000 amp that is recommended for the NS5000 (I heard it) has 100-watts.

My setup is as follow:

• Yggi+ Less is More DAC + Sonore OpticalRendu streamer
• Holo Serene preamp
• CODA #16 amp
• Yamaha NS5000 speakers (long wall placement with no first reflection issues and a very high ceiling that I think mitigates the speaker being only 18 inches from the front wall. No DSP used but, in the future, I will call Mitch Barnett from AcurateSound.ca to take a look at my setup to get his opinion. He does ROON compliant Convolution filters (DSP).
• Cables used were Benchmark XLR between the DAC and preamp and preamp and amp. I normally use Audience AU24 SE from DAC to preamp but not this time due to placement issues for the test.
• Speaker cable is WyWire Platinum. I sold WyWire Diamond a few weeks ago and put the Platinum with the NS5000. It is an OK cable.

The contender was the used AHB2 with the Benchmark speaker cables ($150).

Replacing the CODA #16 with the AHB2 and the Benchmark speaker cables revealed that the AHB2 is still the king on top. Just so smooth and beautiful. The surprise was the bass. Tons of bass, I was not aware that the AHB2 could do bass like this. It was almost like CODA #16 bass. However, there was a hardness to the sound that I could physically feel in my ears.

I should have mentioned that I normally have a Benchmark DAC3B in the Livingroom system streamed via a PlayBack Designs Streamer-IF. The plan is to get the PBD Dream DAC in the future. I first did a ROON grouped stream with the Yggi+ and the DAC3B getting the same signal to do quick A/B comparisons. It was easy to see that the DAC3B was too hot on top for the AHB2. For the CODA #16 that hotness is masked a bit, and it is not a problem.

I left the Benchmark DAC3B behind and just went with the Yggi+ LIM (my office DAC). I was still getting a hint of hardness in the sound. It was not in the top end but in the lower end. For example, on the Eagles Hotel California the drum hits were sounding too hard (physically irritating). It was not as bad as the DAC3B (also bad on top) but still not perfect. Though I was wondering if I could live with it. It sounded pretty good though not perfect.

The next thing I did was try the Yggi+ in NOS mode. That sounded dull to me, and I dropped that as an option.

Then I thought let’s try the WyWire Platinum speaker cable on the AHB2. On the same Eagles song, the drum hits sounded different but still a bit irritating in a different area of the sound.

This got me thinking that the AHB2 is really revealing deficiencies in my speaker cables and maybe with great cables this setup would work. I so happen to have great cables. I have very short Audience FrontRow speaker cables from years ago that I luckily got low balled when I tried to sell. I bought them to use with my old RAAL SR1a setup, but great speaker cables are no longer needed for the SR1a (new solution available).

I converted the AHB2 to mono and tried only 1 speaker with the FrontRow. Now this is not really an apples-to-apples comparison but the irritation I got from the drum hits totally disappeared. I actually did not want to stop listening even though it was only 1 speaker. It sounded amazing, as good as the CODA #16 with the WyWire cables. Now maybe the CODA #16 with longer FrontRow speaker cables, goes ahead again.

I will be buying a second AHB2 to use with the existing short FrontRow cable. Buying a longer FrontRow is much more expensive than getting a second used AHB2. I will move the CODA #16 to the office LRS+ system.

This was a very satisfying result. A couple of things to note. With the AHB2 I prefer a very quiet preamp such as the Holo Serene or Benchmark LA4. I liked the AHB2 with the CODA 07x preamp (sold) but not as much as the quieter Serene and LA4. The AHB2 in stereo mode is not that loud, there are 3 gain settings on the amp. I tried the lowest and middle settings. Getting AHB2 monos gives 6dB more loudness. I would use monos on the lowest setting, where the amp measures the best. The PlayBack Designs DAC with the AHB2 should be killer with this combo. I was not sure if my personal tastes would match the Dream DAC with the CODA #16.