Benchmark AHB2 Teardown

[LTig]

Since the AHB2 is not a high volume product its price is absolutely justified. Think about the R&D costs, the very high precision parts and look at the densely populated 6 layer PCB. Then compare it with boutique high end power amps in the same (or higher) price range.

 

[RichB]

I have 4 AHB2s. Two drive the Salon2s bi-amped. One drives the Voice2 and, one drives the Salon2 rears.
The LA4 drives the front mains for music and fixed gain for HT.

Using the clipping indicators, I get about 1.5 dB headroom by bi-amping and can clip them, but this is not a level that I ever listen.
I thought I would bridge them, but I do not need to power for my use.

My friend also has Salon2s, Voice2, and Gem2s driven by 4 AHB2s.
We have had these for 7+ years with zero issues.

Recently, my friend was using the Marantz AV20 app and slid the volume up to max accidentally.
The AHB2 clipping protection shut the amp off.
This may be an underappreciated feature. He likely saved his tweeters, replacements cost $1,200 each.

- Rich

 

[Billy Budapest]

I don't think there will be another amplifier like the AHB2.

The AHB2 has already reached a SINAD below the threshold of hearing even with just tones. And it is bridgeable if you need more than 100w, 380w into 8 ohms to be exact.

There just aren't any more technical achievements to pursue at this point.

And from another video, John said the AHB2 took thousands of man-hours between Benchmark and THX to engineer, and it's unlikely they will pursue another project with this much labor intensity again.

I don’t think anybody is going to disagree that it is a fantastically engineered and performing amp. However, at $3,500 the value proposition is low compared to similarly-performing (and better performing) Purifi and Hypex Class D amps and Topping Class AB amps. As well it should be—there has been a lot of innovation in the last 10 years that has brought performance up and prices down.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Since the AHB2 is not a high volume product its price is absolutely justified. Think about the R&D costs, the very high precision parts and look at the densely populated 6 layer PCB. Then compare it with boutique high end power amps in the same (or higher) price range.

The price might be justified, but the value is low compared to the competition.

 

[PristineSound]

I don’t think anybody is going to disagree that it is a fantastically engineered and performing amp. However, at $3,500 the value proposition is low compared to similarly-performing (and better performing) Purifi and Hypex Class D amps and Topping Class AB amps. As well it should be—there has been a lot of innovation in the last 10 years that has brought performance up and prices down.

The price might be justified, but the value is low compared to the competition.

I knew there is no way to talk about the almighty Benchmark AHB2 without Topping, Hypex or Purifi being brought up. And I think it's fair to bring those amps up as part of the discussion.

So let's talk about Hypex and Purifi. The only thing that they have on the AHB2 is the power. The Hypex and Purifi distortion profile are not frequency invariant. The finished product is largely dependent on the integrator, the finished Hypex and Purifi products in the market today at most have a remote trigger feature and few models have signal sensing. Other than that it's absolutely barebone.

Whereas the Benchmark has all sorts of fault and safety mechanism. As an example distortion shutdown to protect your tweeters, my speakers cost me a pretty penny, such safety mechanism has already paid for itself, should there are any accidents.

 

[jimmyjames8]

The "tear down" video is pretty cool. Lots I did not know about the design and construction. I have a pair driving Revel F328Be's. Another "feature" is they only weigh 12.5#'s each. Benefit being they are easy to receive and set in place compared to say McIntosh MC830's at 48#'s each.

 

[Billy Budapest]

I knew there is no way to talk about the almighty Benchmark AHB2 without Topping, Hypex or Purifi being brought up. And I think it's fair to bring those amps up as part of the discussion.

So let's talk about Hypex and Purifi. The only thing that they have on the AHB2 is the power. The Hypex and Purifi distortion profile are not frequency invariant. The finished product is largely dependent on the integrator, the finished Hypex and Purifi products in the market today at most have a remote trigger feature and few models have signal sensing. Other than that it's absolutely barebone.

Whereas the Benchmark has all sorts of fault and safety mechanism. As an example distortion shutdown to protect your tweeters, my speakers cost me a pretty penny, such safety mechanism has already paid for itself, should there are any accidents.

It’s not the performance or the protection features, it’s the value proposition. The Hypex and Purify amps are less than 1/3 the price. The Topping amp is less than 1/6 the price. The Benchmsrk was great ten years ago, but technology has moved on, especially in terms of price vs. performance. You can bet that a lot of folks who were formerly considering the AHB2 have bought Purify, Hypex, and Topping amps instead.

 

[Billy Budapest]

The AHB2 is over ten years old at this point. Let that sink in.

Exactly. It is still an example of great engineering but from a value perspective, it just isn’t competitive anymore. Nor would I expect a ten year old design to be.

 

[PristineSound]

It’s not the performance or the protection features, it’s the value proposition. The Hypex and Purify amps are less than 1/3 the price. The Topping amp is less than 1/6 the price. The Benchmsrk was great ten years ago, but technology has moved on, especially in terms of price vs. performance. You can bet that a lot of folks who were formerly considering the AHB2 have bought Purify, Hypex, and Topping amps instead.

If price:technical performance only is how you judge value, then I agree.

To me, it's price:everything ratio and the Benchmark is still king and will be king for a very long time, maybe even forever.

Also, in terms of technical performance, arguable that move beyond the Benchmark, is definitely NOT Purifi nor Hypex.

 

[Scott Borduin]

Exactly. It is still an example of great engineering but from a value perspective, it just isn’t competitive anymore. Nor would I expect a ten year old design to be.

It all depends on how you define value. If it's test bench performance per dollar, Benchmark has never tried to compete on that basis. They engineer things taking into account every factor they can think of, and then charge the price based on what it takes to make that product. Make it very robust against every kind of misuse or external interference, and provide long warranty and excellent customer service from a long lived company with a sterling reputation in both the pro and consumer world. For people like me, there is a lot of value in those "intangibles". That said, if I were helping somebody put together the best system they could on a budget, of course the inexpensive class D stuff has a lot of attraction.

 

[PristineSound]

It all depends on how you define value. If it's test bench performance per dollar, Benchmark has never tried to compete on that basis. They engineer things taking into account every factor they can think of, and then charge the price based on what it takes to make that product. Make it very robust against every kind of misuse or external interference, and provide long warranty and excellent customer service from a long lived company with a sterling reputation in both the pro and consumer world. For people like me, there is a lot of value in those "intangibles". That said, if I were helping somebody put together the best system they could on a budget, of course the inexpensive class D stuff has a lot of attraction.

100%.

The clientele who buys a Benchmark aren't the same as those who are considering a Buckeye, at least not with the same use case.

They Purifi/Hypex and Benchmark (and Topping) are in 3 different worlds of their own.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

TI's ubiquitous TPA3255 is also more than a decade old, and designers are still managing to squeeze more and more performance out of it. TI apparently has no plans for a successor device, instead opting to integrate its technology into multi-function chips like the combined Class D and programmable DSP chips in my three-way Kali monitors. Products like the AHB2 bring admirable innovation to a "high-end" marketplace replete with overpriced status symbols, and Benchmark deserves all the credit in the world for that achievement -- but chip-level innovations like the TPA3255 continue to bring top-notch amplification to people who can't afford and/or justify spending multiple thousands of $$$ on a power amp, allowing such folks to put more of their money where the biggest performance impact has always been IMO: loudspeakers.

 

[PristineSound]

Topping = Very cost conscious and budget friendly. OK with not having, or having very limited, pre-sales and post-sales support. OK taking a chance with reliability. OK taking a chance with driving 2 ohm loads. Good industrial design. OK with external power supplies.

DYI world amps like Modulus = Enjoy the DIY world idea. Cost conscious. Willing to consider non-mainstream alternatives. OK with meh industrial design, often times utilitarians' playground. OK with limited functionality, like lack of trigger, sometimes even lack of front power button. Willing to take a chance on long term support as the businesses selling these amps are often much smaller shops, many times a singular local DIY enthusiast shop. Willing to take a chance on reliability as there just aren't a lot of data point on it.

Purifi and Hypex = A wide spectrum of categories by manufacturer. You got the no frills, utilitarian, rock bottom deal, like Buckeye. To high end like Apollon with brawns like a tank and finesse like a flower. Pre-sales and post-sales support is much better than Topping. Technical performance is excellent, but willing to accept that it is still a class D, so the performance is the worst amongst the SOTA amps. Willing to accept most of them have no bells and no whistles, except for the NAD and Marantz. which you are willing to pay for.

Benchmark = The name says it all, it's the Benchmark. Top of the line performance, not just at 5w 1kHz, but the entire spectrum. No corner cutting on built quality as witness in the video. More functional bells and whistles than a church and a hocky referee. Excellent pre-sales and post-sales support and known long term support. Known indestructible reliability. Overengineered and rigorously QA'ed. The cost ain't cheap, but the cost ain't the first thing to come to mind for the clientele.

 

[PristineSound]

TI's ubiquitous TPA3255 is also more than a decade old, and designers are still managing to squeeze more and more performance out of it. TI apparently has no plans for a successor device, instead opting to integrate its technology into multi-function chips like the combined Class D and programmable DSP chips in my three-way Kali monitors.

The TI class D chip amps aren't even in the SOTA category. It's not even in the discussion.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

The TI class D chip amps aren't even in the SOTA category. It's not even in the discussion.

Well then, now they apparently are "in the discussion." For a system to be SOTA, a SOTA amp may be the least essential ingredient -- with five- or even six-figure speakers, a SOTA amp may make sense, and that's where the AHB2 shines like a diamond at its price point. Given most folks' speaker budgets and the limitations of human hearing, a carefully selected chip-based solution is close enough to SOTA that they'd be hard pressed to notice any significant audible improvement if an AHB2 was swapped in.

 

[PristineSound]

Well then, now they apparently are "in the discussion." For a system to be SOTA, a SOTA amp may be the least essential ingredient -- with five- or even six-figure speakers, a SOTA amp may make sense, and that's where the AHB2 shines like a diamond at its price point. Given most folks' speaker budgets and the limitations of human hearing, a carefully selected chip-based solution is close enough to SOTA that they'd be hard pressed to notice any significant audible improvement if an AHB2 was swapped in.

I understand what you are saying, but what you are saying is from a practical POV. We are talking about SOTA in the absolute terms, you are talking about SOTA : price ratio. That's perfectly fine, but that isn't the same as the category of SOTA amps in discussion when we are talking about an amp like the Benchmark.

And yes, the TI chip amps are great amps, especially when you take price and versatility into consideration.

 

[Purité Audio]

Having been able to directly compare, I couldn’t hear any difference between Hypex/Purifi and the AHB2 which is as expected, the better Purifi implementations ( Fred’s ‘Boxem for example) have both auto sensing and three levels of gain and less than half the price.
Keith

 

[jeffaegrim]

I hate the expression „playing devils advocate“, because what follows is usually some of the most dim social commentary you’ve ever read, but I feel inclined to use it here. I love the AHB2, wanted to own the amp for a long time and successfully urged a friend of mine to buy one when we put together his system. Today, I honestly wouldn’t consider it. First, I feel like you‘d clearly need two of these to pair with modern low sensitivity speakers for SOTA amplification - the power output of a single stereo unit into 8 Ohm ist just not that impressive, and the lack of available power on tap will be more detrimental than having suboptimal noise/distortion specs, which are already inaudible on amps that perform several calibres worse. Secondly, particularly in cases where two AHB2s would be considered, I personally feel like you could get a much - pardon my French - prettier amplifier. If you’re willing to to scour the used market, you could easily purchase an Accuphase power amp for less than the price of a single AHB2, the former also measuring very well. I understand the issues with this approach, but that would be my preferred one today. It generally seems unwise to fully discard aesthetics in discussions about SOTA amplifiers, as while their specs are of mostly academic interest, we are inevitably going to spend a lot of time staring at them. This is an area where I feel like the corners on the AHB2 have been cut a bit.

 

[etc6849]

So much talk on here about cost not equating to performance. I get it, there's a lot of overpriced gear that doesn't measure well at all. However, with an engineering focused company, you do get what you pay for.

Engineering is more than just performance. It's also about protection features, product longevity, etc... I'm totally fine paying a little extra for a product that is best in class engineering wise. Benchmark is thorough enough to select quality electrical components that are likely overrated (not some off brand Chinese capacitor that works fine today, but won't in 5 years because they lied about the temperature rating).

Of course, people are free to buy what they want. If you want pro-level audio gear that is designed to work as advertised for decades, it costs a little more.

To me features like this matter and reflect a well engineered product over all:

Having been able to directly compare, I couldn’t hear any difference between Hypex/Purifi and the AHB2 which is as expected, the better Purifi implementations ( Fred’s ‘Boxem for example) have both auto sensing and three levels of gain and less than half the price.
Keith

 

[Multicore]

Interesting but

1. Background music. I can't concentrate on the verbal information with that going on. And the music is terrible.
2. Lighting could be a lot better
3. Makes me nervous that John pokes a metal screwdriver around in there to point at things.

I could only get half way because of the music.