2. amps-preamps
  3. 188029-1604

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.

 

yyzsantabarbara
yyzsantabarbara OP
4,530 posts
 

This morning, I wanted to give the AHB2 one more listen. As I was putting the cables in place, I noticed that I had left the gain switch in the middle of 3 positions. I did that with the other cable to get a bit more volume.

I switched the gain to the lowest position, the quietest position and best measuring. What do you know, it sound rather different and much more to my liking. I listened to Zeppelin’s "In Through the Outdoor" in its entirety on this setting and it was great. Very engaging and a bit more restrained. Fantastic. I need to go back and do more listening, likely tomorrow. Got a different listening session happening today. I will also get feedback on the AHB2 + FrontRow from my friend.

 

yyzsantabarbara OP
4,530 posts
 

I had my friend over today to listen to the NS5000. He is a very experienced audio person being both a musician, engineer, and audio hardware vender. I told him I wanted to play the remastered version of the Stones "Sympathy for the Devil" and the first thing he tells me is "oh my buddy plays on that track". Later I wanted to play the DSOTM SACD disk on my D.FAB SACD extractor (or whatever it is referred to). He then tells me that the producer of the album is a neighbor of mine. Turns out he is friends with the local guy, Alan Parsons. My point being that he knows what things SHOULD sound like, unlike myself who thinks things should sound a certain way. A perfect person to help evaluate my system.

I will summarize the points between the AHB2 and the CODA #16. I used the Serene preamp and Yggi+ LIM DAC for both amps. First thing that he said was that he thought the articulation of the bass on the AHB2 was amazing, especially on the Sympathy for the Devil. The CODA had issues playing this track cleanly on the low end. However, he preferred the CODA over the AHB2 from the midrange and twitter. This was expected since he is a tube guy, but we were both surprised at how good the bass was on the AHB2. I consider the CODA a bass monster, but in this case the AHB2 was better.

We then removed the AHB2 and only listened to the #16. In all subsequent tracks he thought the bass on the #16 was great, without any issues. He thought the #16 was great, but he actually liked the brighter Benchmark DAC3B on the #16 over the Yggi+ LIM. That is not surprising since I use the brighter DAC3B on the #16 to balance the sweetness of the Class A amp. He also said something that I also said earlier, a warmer DAC for the AHB2 maybe all that is needed to make it work great on the NS5000.

The conclusions I have reached for the gear I will use for the NS5000, is to keep both the AHB2 and the #16. I will use the DAC3B with the CODA and use the PlayBack Designs Dream DAC with either both amps or just the AHB2.

************************************************************

With regards to the Yamaha NS5000 speaker. It was so much fun to hear the comments. A lot of the same comments as I had.

  • The incredible coherence of the speaker.
  • speaker with both finesse and grunt.
  • Something that seems like a musical instrument.

What was interesting was to hear comments like "that was the best I ever heard a particular instrument on a track". I heard that comment several times.

We listened to a Chet Baker song and said that the microphone placement was correctly rendered on the speaker. Supposedly this is either not rendered at all or incorrectly by most speakers. A bit of technical details were mentioned to me but I forgot them now. All observations were favorable to the NS5000.

He said the NS5000 was the 3rd best speaker he had ever heard. The first being a $648k German Physics speaker he heard 17 years ago driven by a turntable. I forgot his second fav.

 

vinylvalet
845 posts
 

Thanks for that, very interesting. The NS5000 sounds like my kind of speaker and a relatively good value. I would love to compare it to an ATC SCM100P, a very similar looking 12" 3 way although the retail is $9k more. Being in the pro audio business, I'm sure your friend is familiar with a number of ATC pro products and it would be interesting to hear his opinion as well.

yyzsantabarbara OP
4,530 posts
 

Here is one more quote from my friend that I received this morning. I think he means "So What" by Miles Davies.

 

All morning, I’ve been thinking about how beautifully your NS-5000s rendered the bass on “Kind Of Blue”. I’ve listened to that recording for 50-years and don’t remember ever hearing such clarity in that region. Everything was excellent and the bass was especially so.

I really think the greatness of this speaker lies in the Zylon drivers that are very similar to Beryllium (maybe better). Yamaha has managed to make all 3 drivers with the same material. Including that huge 12-inch woofer. That is where the coherence everyone talks about with this speaker comes from.

My friend also told me yesterday that he cannot hear the crossover. Even me with my limited knowledge realized that when I demoed the NS5000 along with some other top brands. As I mentioned in some other posts my NS5000 was maybe the worst demo I ever had for a speaker, yet I bought it.

 

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