What associated equipment was in your system when you were evaluating the Benchmarks? Are you talking about the LA4 and AHB2?
If I went that route, I’d probably add a DAC3 and some third-party streamer, so I’d be getting into the $15,000 range, not including interconnects and power cords. At this point, weight, SQ, and connectivity are more important than cost, though. (Within reason, of course!)
With the Benchmark gear I have much better experience with their low cost XLR between amp and preamp ($200 for 20 feet). I use Audience XLR and RCA from the source to the preamp. The BM gear is AES48 compatible (for XLRs). I use Benchmark XLR from the DAC3B to the preamp. Though the DAC3B is not the end all of DACs (a little hot but good with Harbeth). The only place where I really want non-BM cables is the speaker cable (I use Audience FrontRow). The BM speaker cable is good on a bright speaker.
Using non-BM power cables is something I also never do on BM gear. Other gear, I use non-stock cables. Reviewers may say different, but this how my ears hear the BM gear. I even have some 15-foot amp power cables from BM, very useful, cheap, and sounds fine.
On the used market you can hookup the 3 BM components for under $6500 (with BM cables). The form factor is rather small with all 3 units stacked on top, which is fine to do with BM gear.