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Happy new owner of the HD650’s! @jhaider is great to work with. Excellent communication. Shipped and received quickly! They sound great with the Benchmark HPA4 stack. Thank you!!!

New HPA4 added to the Benchmark stack. Sounds amazing! What are you finding for gain using a Benchmark DAC? DAC is at 0 internally and in HT/Compatibility mode. With 2 AHB2 amps in mono, I’m having to crank the gain more than expected?

Purchased from Benchmark

Looking for a Benchmark HPA4. Silver faceplate. Thank you.

I think I heard coax digital out is preferred to optical because of something technical. Bits maybe. I went coax to Benchmark DAC.

That is the typical use case. The node has L/R audio outputs that plug into an amp. You might need to adjust the input gain on your amp to match the Node. (If available). The Node is acting as a pre-amp and would control volume, some tone, etc. it uses/has its own DAC.

The Bluesound app has volume controls. Via the top screen on the Node or the phone app. You only want 1 device controlling volume. My DAC has a remote control so I set the Node to Max volume in Settings and use the volume control on the DAC. Either way works.

Pretty sure you can have the Bluesound app change the volume. You can also set it to fixed (max) volume. That’s the way I have it set since my Benchmark DAC3 has a remote control for volume.

If you are buying from Benchmark, I’m sure they could check it prior to shipping. Rory and the crew are extremely helpful.

No noise when switched off. (Standby)

My DAC3 HGC is dead quiet when turned on and not playing. It’s an older one. v1.1 that I upgraded to 2.1 (they have a chip for that!) input is Bluesound Node via coax. See pic 2 posts up. Everything is on triggers. Auto on / auto off. I wouldn’t want any kind of noise. That’s the point of...

You can use Amazon Music as a native app in BluOS

Thought about reselling the amp. But would have had shipping, etc. I think I came out ok. I was able to ship UPS via Easyship for around $150. The main issue was the UPS and random Customs red tape stress.

Honestly I went for the plug n play and blue os. New to high res streaming. I may consider other options as I learn.

I was streaming a Bluesound Node into the HPA-S400ET. Didn’t have enough gain to get more than 90 SPL. This was at the highest gain setting. Even though everyone said it should be fine. Ended up returning it to Audiophonics. They were great. UPS shipping was a nightmare. They wanted $600 to...

I’m a fan. Bluesound Node > Benchmark DAC3 > 2 Bridged Mono Benchmark AHB2 Amps > BMR Towers.

Follow-up. The Audiophonics HPA-S400ET was a disappointment. It did not have enough power to drive the BMR Towers past about 90 SPL. Which everyone says should not be the case. But it was. So, I threw money at the situation. Mid-life crisis #16. Got some used equipment from great ASR members...

What quality/bitrate would I get connecting an iPhone to the Node via 1/8” the analog in? Then playing Apple Music lossless? Different than Airplay2?

I have the latest Node and am using it for streaming. I have an extremely clean amp and revealing speakers and am frustrated with sound quality this far. I have an Apple Music subscription. It can only use Airplay2 to the Node - which sounds muddy and compressed. (Lossless setting). I tried...

Thanks. I opened the case to check the jumpers. Most of the screws were extremely tight. The last one was very tough. My Allen wrench couldn’t grab it. Used the closest SAE wrench and got it. They do set Gain+ by default. Configuration 2.