Listeners often like components that impart artificial warmth or bloom. I get it completely—been there, done that. Benchmark gear doesn’t offer this (although it does result in excellent decay if the speakers and source allow). As with any system, the amplification has to produce synergy with the speakers and room. Benchmark is no different in that regard. It’s for this reason I still own their LA4 preamp but no longer use an AHB2, and instead use an OG Parasound A21. The A21 is not as resolving as the AHB2, but produces similar output to mono AHB2s for less than half the money, and imparts just enough second harmonic to add a bit of “glow” to the chain.
If my speakers didn’t have high-quality, high-resolution drivers, or if my DAC was an R2R that truncates the top octave, I would likely be better off with an AHB2. Because otherwise, the Parasound would be too “warm” in such a scenario. Again, this is all about synergy and careful component matching.
The LA4 will remain in my system for the foreseeable future because nearly every other preamp I’ve tried cannot match it in terms of transient speed and decay. In a way that’s disappointing, because I am not a big fan of the LA4’s aesthetic or its remote control. But somehow, even passive preamps are less resolving IME.
At one point I did have a system chain that would be an ASR member’s wet dream:
Revel F206 speakers with the Benchmark LA4 and AHB2, and a great measuring Topping DAC upstream. That system was actually one of the most enjoyable and fatigue-free I’ve ever assembled. Perhaps that’s mostly because the F206 speakers are practically distortion-free above 200Hz. Conversely, had I still owned MA Silver 8s at that time, I have zero doubt the Benchmark amps would have been far too sterile, because they would’ve fully revealed the true mediocrity of that speaker’s tweeters. It’s basically the same reason for why I would never pair a Benchmark stack with most Klipsch speakers, nor B&W’s 700 series. Essentially, any speaker with moderate or greater distortion would be immediately disqualified from the list of synergistic candidates.
Lastly, it’s my opinion and experience that the best Benchmark products are the LA4/HPA4 preamps. Their DAC3 is rather antiquated these days (and ugly AF) and the AHB2, while a good clean performer, doesn’t offer the dynamic grunt that many speakers (especially high end speakers) thrive on.
I’ve compared the LA4 back-to-back with preamps such as the McIntosh C49 and Coda CP (with aforementioned Electro ECD2 DAC and BMR Tower speakers). All else being equal, the LA4 is quite audibly a wholly superior preamp. The others are “warmer,” sure, but their overall performance suffers as a result. The LA4 yields a much more true-to-life sound. If you want to hear audience hand claps and cheers that sound as though they’re in your physical presence, the LA4 paired with low distortion speakers can get many systems closer to that goal.
