Some love for the Benchmark HPA4/LA4

Not sure when which photo you are referring to but at the moment in my office I have an empty bottle of Johnnie Walker Double Black (not bad) and a few drops of Oban left in the bottle. Believe it or not, when I went for my last physical (age 53) my doctor told be to drink more scotch. It does wonders for me so he said drink more.

BTW - I sold my HPA4 last week and I am now using a Topping pre90 preamp. It sounds like the HPA4 minus the great headphone amp and the volume dial on the HPA4 is nicer. However, the Topping pre90 cost $599 and actually seems to measure better than the HPA4.

The HPA4/Topping pre90 are my second preamps so I decided to recoup my cash and get the Topping pre90. My main preamp is the CODA 07x.

I should add that the Topping pre90 is as bare bones as it gets. It just takes source inputs and adds volume to it. No balance adjustment, muting, and the interface is pretty crap. However, none of that matters in my use case. The HPA4 is a much more fuller feature set and sounds the same (to me) as the Topping pre90.

Has anyone out there compared the LA4 to a good LDR based preamp such as a Tortuga?  My priorities are transparency and a black background.  The Tortuga does well on this - just wondering if the LA4 May equal it in those areas while offering the benefits of an active preamp.  Thanks for any comments.

I have compared my LA4 (sold my HPA4) to the Topping pre90, which has better measurements than the LA4/HPA4. It was super quiet so the blackest of black backgrounds. However, it really only worked perfectly with my AHB2 and a Parasound A21+. I was going to sell this $700 wonder but decided not to since it works so good with the AHB2 monos I have in my living room. One thing that I noticed is that my KEF KC63 sub sounds better via the Topping pre90 than the Benchmark LA4. Not sure why that is, but this LS50 + KC63 system is a stop gap system until I can get some floorstanders without using a sub. I plan to keep the Topping pre90 in the living room long term.

I have also compared my LA4 with my CODA 07x preamp and they sit side-by-side in my office. I have setup the 2 preamps to be able to play my sources by just changing the XLR cable going into my CODA #8 amp. The reason I use both preamps is because the CODA 07x, while awesome, is not as detailed and quiet as the LA4. I love both preamps and alternate.

I will post some photos of this setup since I am now DONE setting up this system.

Thanks for the comment.  We seem to. Eon the same threads as I have also been active in the  Musetec 005 DAC thread.  After some research, I am thinking about trying a low cost experiment to place a Topping preamp in front of my Decware 2 watt SET amp.  I am happy with the Tortuga but am curious to see if I can get an added benefit from using an active preamp.