2. amps-preamps
  3. 152449-5880

Benchmark LA4 Preamp?

I’m seriously considering buying this $2,500 solid-state preamp and looking for input from anyone who owns or has heard this preamp.  The LA4 is identical to their HPA4 unit just without the headphone amp.

From all the reviews and Benchmark’s site that I’ve read, this seems like an extremely low noise and neutral preamp that may be a very good match for my extremely low noise, neutral and high powered class D D-Sonic M3-600-M monoblock amps that I use to drive a pair of Magnepan 2.7QR 4 ohm speakers.
My main source for 2-ch music is a Lumin D2 dac/streamer for music files and Tidal streaming. For HT, I’ll be using a yet to be determined 4K Bluray player as I’m also transforming from an Oppo 105 1080p player and 1080p hdtv to 4K. The LA4 has caught my attention since it has dual balanced XLR inputs to accommodate the XLR outputs of the Lumin D2 and whatever new Bluray player I choose. I plan on ordering the optional remote for the LA4 which would allow easy selection between music or HT as well as being a low noise, low distortion and neutral conduit for both.

I really appreciate any input on the LA4, or even options for a high quality Bluray player with balanced outputs, that you’re able to offer.

Thanks,
Tim
128x128noble100
roadsterluver
18 posts
 
After years of emails to Benchmark support with endless questions on the application of their DAC 3L with various amplifiers, and with excellent, patient responses from Rory Rall, I made the purchase about two months ago.  Over many years of having used excellent DACs from Cary Audio and McIntosh, the Benchmark is truly a stunner.  I am hearing an astounding increase in detail and clarity from recordings.  While I truly admire Benchmark's LA4 and AHB2 power amp and owning one (or two?) is still on my radar, I decided to pair the 3L with mono-blocked tube McIntosh MC275VI's. The combination has proven to be amazing and again I have to thank Benchmark with guidance on proper matching. While I have 45 years of experience with McIntosh, the quality, performance and support from Benchmark is second to none.
adurerca
38 posts
 
Agreed, they always respond to emails promptly and answer the phone!  When my amp failed shortly after receiving it they resolved it promptly with a replacement.  It took me about a year and it was totally unplanned but I eventually converted my entire system to their amp dac and pre one by one.
flat4
53 posts
 
On the LA4 can XLR and RCA be used at the same time? Would like to try one but not really enough outputs for running 4 subs.
divertiti
223 posts
 
@flat4 Yes both XLR and RCA can be used at the same time. I'm about to list one for sale, feel free to PM me.
yyzsantabarbara
4,528 posts
 
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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