I read many reviews on this forum about different amps and the many arguments placed to convince me that I would be thrilled with an amp that measures very well. So I bought the Benchmark AHB2 which is apparently one of the best if not maybe the best measured amp in terms of distortion and noise.
How am I disappointed after a week of listening. It is going back to the store if they will take it back and I am going back to buying an amp from Marantz. Even though my humble Marantz SR8300 won't measure anywhere near as well as the Benchmark in terms of distortion and noise it sounds so MUCH better. The AHB2 sounds dry, lifeless, without emotion, plain, dull. I have the AHB2 on 2V gain setting. The Marantz sound is SO much more engaging and entertaining and drives my Magnepan 1.7i better that I hear a closer to live performance sound despite the higher distortion at louder listening levels. I'm now on the hunt for either a Marantz 30, PM12SE or PM10.
I should have stuck to my guns and not be influenced by this forum and instead bought based on listening tests primarily rather than buying something I hadn't listened too because it is not available in my state.
So my advice is NEVER assume that an amp or SACD/CD that measures better than another MUST sound better. Because it likely will not IMHO.
Disregard measurements for the most part as they are IMHO a complete waste of time. Measurements given on this forum do NOT measure whether an amplifier sounds good, it only measures technicalities that are for the most part not important to human emotion and experience.
I must say as I consistently repeat myself on this forum, read below. I am a firm believer in measurements, I feel synergy plays a huge role, and also that your source is by far the most crucial piece of equipment. This is strictly my personal opinion and experience, the source change in my system made the greatest leap in audible performance and it definitely was not blind tested. This is a source, so you cant really consider a good measuring source as a bad thing.
But to get to the point, I heard the benchmark at AXPONA and honestly I was not impressed at all by it, and I can see where you are coming from with all the issues you explained. Not here to debate on this, and ironically it was running in a bridged mono config which may actually increase some noise and distortion. Cant recall what speakers they were using, but they were expensive for certain.
I feel bad that you had a negative experience, however you cant let a one time thing change your entire mind on measurements.
I will say though as this is my most repetitive comment on here, that even extremely poorly measuring amps do not sound bad and even to the point that the unit itself bottlenecks your entire system drastically. I stumbled upon this by mistake when trying to experience new and different things in stereo listening. I purchased an amp for 20 dollars, it's sinad is less than -40 db and was measured here on ASR. I never checked to see if this amp was any good because one the price was nothing and two I simply wanted to see what the amp sounded like as I was experimenting. The oddest thing I have found is that prior to even checking the measurements which was months after using this amp and still to this day I very much do enjoy using this amp. Not saying that it is the best or even does anything extremely well, however I do not hate listening to it and you would assume right off the bat something designed so poorly and measuring so bad would be total trash.
The moment I found out how bad it was made me really think how bad is bad. Second to this, I have equipment which is extremely well measuring to compare against. My extremely well measuring system does sound better without a doubt, however even so I do not have any urge or reason to not use this component because I personally like it and it's use is for a second system I have in my home.
But in absolutely no way do I feel like my main listening system, which is in the five figures was a waste of money, nor that I could replace that amp with this 20 dollar amp.
I feel that it would honestly only be fair for someone to truly understand what these measurements mean by having listened to the worst and the best as well. It further helps me isolate two other factors, how so many of these companies have gotten away with selling mid grade measuring products with high price tags and also how subjective reviewers praise something that ends up measuring like kaka.
Even with this knowledge, I still do not tell anyone on here to forget the measurements but to please just understand this and that most things, 90%, wont sound bad and the measurements themselves will put you in a bias from possibly building a dream system which truly does sound good. I am in addition a firm believer that you should not spend 1000's on a product that performs equally to a far cheaper product. This is only my second year in audio, and honestly my main sound system literally sounds better than numerous 6 figure systems I have heard at audio shows.
I also have to thank Amir as two of the components he tested and I incorporated into my system is what made magic to my ears, and also another one measured by someone else not on this site I believe. So there's absolutely no chance I can tell anyone not to check these reviews out or support this websites mission.