The company says the AHB2 shows no traces of the crossover distortion and delivers less than 0.00011% total harmonic distortion in stereo mode – which is extremely low, if you were in any doubt. It's an interesting design, developed jointly with THX. It runs very cool all the time yet provides a quoted 100W RMS into 8 ohms, both channels driven, and nearly twice that into 4. The amp performs a series of self-tests on start-up, and the various lights come on to show current warning, clipping, temperature problems, or power supply loss. The front panel has a power switch and a light display, which can be decoded with reference to the manual.
BENCHMARK AHB2 POWER AMPLIFIER PLUS
You get normal speaker binding posts plus a pair of Neutrik's Speakon connectors on the output side.
You can bridge the AHB2 to make it a monoblock, or bi-wire it to a single speaker there are only balanced connections incoming, as well as a choice of gain to match the speaker. Two things strike you upon first seeing it – it's surprisingly compact, and it also has the sort of features that make it more at home in a studio than a listening room lounge space. His initials adorn the AHB2 power amplifier that you see here. Based in Syracuse, New York, the company was founded thirty years ago by Allen H.
I first heard about this brand over a decade ago, when it made an excellent – by the standards of the time – and reasonably priced DAC. However, to this shortlist, we can add Benchmark. Maybe Bryston and the odd ATC, but there aren't a lot.
BENCHMARK AHB2 POWER AMPLIFIER PRO
In my experience as a professional musician who's regularly performing live and/or recording, I can't think of many amps with dual hi-fi and pro functionality. Still, amplifiers are less likely to cross the great divide. As far as the latter is concerned, B&W has famously made in-roads to the great temple of recording that is Abbey Road, and Quad electrostatics are sometimes found in the vans of recording engineers. Yet for some strange reason, very few products truly bridge this divide – never the twain shall meet, it often transpires.Ĭompanies like dCS and Chord Electronics spring to mind as exceptions to this rule, but perhaps it's an easier job for digital converters as they're not being asked to directly power banks of studio monitors or PA loudspeakers. True, they also demand greater reliability and ruggedness due to the rigours of continuous usage and often transportation. There's an interesting parallel universe to be discovered in the neighbouring domain of pro audio – after all, engineers should want the same as audiophiles, namely great sound.
Benchmark Media Systems AHB2 Power Amplifier
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