[ylee]

The Benchmark AHB2 is in the house. Putting it in my system with two AudioQuest Oak cables per channel with spades required some creative connecting on my part. I wound up being annoyed having to deal with very limited real estate on the back of the amp plus the very, very stiff AQ Oaks which made for a frustratingly difficult hookup. After wrestling for the better part of an hour plus resetting the dip switches in the Quatro CT high pass boxes to match the input impedence of the Benchmark, I switched everything on with bated breath. At first, the sound was rather faint. Hmmm, time to adjust the input sensitivity on the amp. Even though I'm using balanced cables throughout the chain starting from the source, I had to throw the rear switch on the amp to the highest sensitivity setting which was surprising.

Adjusting this along with the max volume setting on my CP-800 preamp, I've been listening to a mix of classical and rock music. To summarize, this is a fantastic highly resolving amp!!! I'd say it definitly lives up to the hype. My Classe CA-2200 amp is still a great amp (impressively so considering it was introduced back in 2004), but this Benchmark is in another league when it comes to resolution. With 100 watts per channel coupled with the Quatro's built-in 250 watts per channel subwoofer amp, I'm still getting 350 watts per channel, so the system still sounds plenty strong. While there is not quite as much kick as with the CA-2200's 200 watts per channel (450 watts per channel total), it is definitely adequate with a very clean sound. The biggest improvement is pitch definition in the bass region - organ and bass notes come through very nicely.

Obviously I'm going to have to let the amp burn in and the character will change a bit as it does so. It nonetheless sounds great out of the box. Given the quality and price, this product along with the THX-AAA technology has all the potential of being a disruptive one in the industry. I'll post further updates as time goes on. Below is a pic of my creative attachment of the speaker cables.