Benchmark has shipping it to me.
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Benchmark HPA4 Line/headphone amplifier
- Thread starter Purité Audio
- Start date
Can I request one measurement for it? Take the best measuring dac you have and measure the output of the pre with the dac to see if the it changes with the Pre in front of it.
Will do although you can tell the same if the pre has 10 dB lower SINAD. Anything less and it will contribute to lowering the DAC SINAD.
I have an HPA4 combined with a DAC3 (the B model), which I think will be common even though the HPA4 is a general analog device and can be used with any DAC. Those two devices play well together and support balanced interconnection at professional levels (“XLR outputs are calibrated to +24 dBu at 0 dBFS, RCA outputs are calibrated to 2 Vrms at 0 dBFS”). This should give it an advantage on noise, although perhaps not on distortion. Especially with their claims about their scalability.
I understand you want to make standard tests, but I would like to see measurements at this level as well, ideally of both DAC and amp.
(The Chord Hugo TT2 has a somewhat similar stunt: there is no separate amp stage, the DAC analog stage can drive headphones directly, but it goes up to 9 V — not quite sure how this compares, but it seems interesting to measure it at its own non-standard levels, as well.)
(I have both and find them very satisfying.)
I understand you want to make standard tests, but I would like to see measurements at this level as well, ideally of both DAC and amp.
(The Chord Hugo TT2 has a somewhat similar stunt: there is no separate amp stage, the DAC analog stage can drive headphones directly, but it goes up to 9 V — not quite sure how this compares, but it seems interesting to measure it at its own non-standard levels, as well.)
(I have both and find them very satisfying.)
Interesting. I'd like to see that along with the other stuff if you don't mind.
FourT6and2
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I'd love to try this thing, but for the $3,000 it commands I can buy a THX AAA 789, Violectric V280, Cayin iHA-6, and have money left over for a DAC (DAC3-B or Qutest).
I'm also left wondering how a Benchmark stack (HPA4 + DAC3-B) compares to something like the all-in-one DAC/amp Matrix Element X.
I'm also left wondering how a Benchmark stack (HPA4 + DAC3-B) compares to something like the all-in-one DAC/amp Matrix Element X.
I will comment on the Benchmark stack but I have no knowledge of the latter device. Interesting, to me, in theory only.
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