First impression of the Benchmark AHB2

[rman9]

Ended up ordering the silver Benchmark AHB2 and received it last week. Preamp is Burmester 088 and driving Magico A5 speakers. Streamer is HiFi Rose RS130. These are my observations
1) Nice fit and finish, shipment packaging was excellent, nice quality power cable and added bonus of a shot glass. Nice touch..
2) Great speaker binding posts and XLR inserts are snug and smooth to insert and remove with that nice sounding clicks.
3) Selected the low gain sensitivity.
4) Qobuz streaming, noticed I had to crank the 88 preamp to close to 40 to get the same volume level that I would get at a setting of 25 with the Burmester 956 mk II amp, or the Luxman M10x amp. Details were just amazing, and no lack of grunt or power. Just beautiful sound, and whisper quiet when songs finish or quiet passages of music. No hiss what so ever. I have to strain my ears to the tweeters to get any sign of hiss when the amp is turned on. Feel like its quieter than the Burmester or the Luxman.
5) IDAGIO streaming of classical music. I feel classical music is where most high end audio show their weakness in terms of dynamics of lows and highs. But not this little AHB2. Wow, I am stunned by how it brings the orchestra alive.
6) The blue power on LED is nice and not overly distracting.
7) I also ran the same setup except replacing the Magico with Sonus Faber Serafinos and the Piano sounds comes across more natural maybe because the speakers are wood. Not sure.
7) Just ordered the second one, don't ask me why.. lets just say I am sought of a audio freak.. But will post my observation when I run them bridged mono.
Thanks for reading.. Cheers

 

[Holmz]

If your speakers are bi-wired, you could also run each as a vertical biamp.
Bridged may be better - I dunno…

 

[rman9]

@Holmz the Magico A5 doesn't support Bi-Amping. And they are a pain in the behind to move them around even with furniture sliders. I'll try with the Serafinos when I get the second AHB2.

 

[Holmz]

@Holmz the Magico A5 doesn't support Bi-Amping. And they are a pain in the behind to move them around even with furniture sliders. I'll try with the Serafinos when I get the second AHB2.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

noticed I had to crank the 88 preamp to close to 40 to get the same volume level that I would get at a setting of 25 with the Burmester 956 mk II amp, or the Luxman M10x amp.

What gain setting did you use on the AHB2?

 

[microstrip]

(...)
3) Selected the low gain sensitivity.
4) Qobuz streaming, noticed I had to crank the 88 preamp to close to 40 to get the same volume level that I would get at a setting of 25 with the Burmester 956 mk II amp, or the Luxman M10x amp. Details were just amazing, and no lack of grunt or power. Just beautiful sound, and whisper quiet when songs finish or quiet passages of music. No hiss what so ever. I have to strain my ears to the tweeters to get any sign of hiss when the amp is turned on. Feel like its quieter than the Burmester or the Luxman. (...)

Usually this is a good thing - why running the preamplifier with higher attenuation? In fact, most systems have too high gain and are run at very low volume positions.

 

[microstrip]

The simple scientific approach to fine tuning speaker positioning - Teflon sliders on Teflon sheet. I cut them myself with an hole saw and stick them to spike pads with double sided tape.

Graphene could be better, but surely trickier!

 

[rman9]

What gain setting did you use on the AHB2?

Low-Gain

 

[Kal Rubinson]

3) Selected the low gain sensitivity.

Ah. Missed that. Generally, that is ideal since if minimizes system noise if the preceding components are capable of providing sufficient output for comfortable levels. Systems operating with low VC settings on the preamp are not usually optimizing SNR.

 

[rman9]

I forgot to mention, Benchmark is also sending me free, a pair of XLR cables and a pair of NL2 to banana speaker cables because of ordering two components. Sweet..