Jacco, where did you buy it? I don't see it in their online shop. It looks exactly what I need right now. No, not for audio
Thanks,
Actually is is very similar to Peter Walker's Current Dumping. The heart of the system is the same bridge concept as CD but with some different arrangements to avoid the use of a conductor.
Then they add some additional feedback loop.
So I am still struggling to find out what it is exactly that is novel.
Jan
I suspect you will be struggling for a goodly time---and not out of some personal deficiency. Lately THX seems to be trying to outdo Bose at patenting prior art.
Having said this, the Benchmark designer probably knows what he/she is doing, and needn't have licensed the THX stuff. Referencing prior art and long-expired patents ought to have been all that is necessary. Gary Galo is certainly gaga about the amplifier in his aXp review, although I am suspicious when people claim to hear substantial improvements, since really good amplifiers are ubiquitous.
Brad
You guys are all on top of this which is a good thing. How is this different than current dumping or whatever, I don't know. Does it matter?
Jeez you have to be kidding? I have to plead ignorance to any knowledge of the audio press. Does this diss all class D amps?
Despite the conspicuous absence from the licensed patents, the review cites feed-forward error correction over and over, with a vice president of Benchmark engaging in such hyperbole as “the AHB2 is a complete 180° departure from traditional high-end amplifier designs.” I guess I would have to ask if the polarity was therefore always inverting compared to expectations
Galo gushes about transparency and states that he knows he's said these sorts of things before (but that this is a whole new level), after writing "The most immediately striking characteristic of this amplifier is a jaw-dropping level of detail and resolution. The AHB2 redefines the word 'transparency' and will make many competing amplifiers sound veiled and foggy by comparison. The Benchmark amplifier lets you penetrate the densest orchestral scores with ease, never offering a hint of congestion."
Whew. I wonder how cleanly it clips, a non-trivial item when the power is as modest as this.
Despite the conspicuous absence from the licensed patents, the review cites feed-forward error correction over and over, with a vice president of Benchmark engaging in such hyperbole as “the AHB2 is a complete 180° departure from traditional high-end amplifier designs.” I guess I would have to ask if the polarity was therefore always inverting compared to expectations
Galo gushes about transparency and states that he knows he's said these sorts of things before (but that this is a whole new level), after writing "The most immediately striking characteristic of this amplifier is a jaw-dropping level of detail and resolution. The AHB2 redefines the word 'transparency' and will make many competing amplifiers sound veiled and foggy by comparison. The Benchmark amplifier lets you penetrate the densest orchestral scores with ease, never offering a hint of congestion."
Whew. I wonder how cleanly it clips, a non-trivial item when the power is as modest as this.
Sounds like he's channeling Harry Pearson, I guess the latest op-amps are cool enough to close the loop around a total class B connected pair and evoke this, shall we say, hubris. All of a sudden there is a totally new amplifier topology that makes everything before seem veiled and muffled, right blah blah woof woof.
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John,
I have some granite speaker enclosures, machined out of solid granite. The problem with them is that they weigh at least 500lb. each and have fun moving them. Dead as dead can be but not something you would do commercially. Polished black granite with blue streaks. Definitely don't want to rap these things with your knuckles.
I have some granite speaker enclosures, machined out of solid granite. The problem with them is that they weigh at least 500lb. each and have fun moving them. Dead as dead can be but not something you would do commercially. Polished black granite with blue streaks. Definitely don't want to rap these things with your knuckles.
Also from that review,
technology is not a necessary magic bullet ...
The situation is that most systems do add "unpleasant character" of their own, "accurate" amplifiers or otherwise - euphonic masking is not the answer, and neither is allowing those low-level artifacts to remain. It's easier to do the euphonic thing; much, much harder to totally clean up the system. A "clean" system does then give one the sound that this reviewer is gushing about, but "superior"
technology is not a necessary magic bullet ...
Despite being close friends with advocates of DBT, I agree with some who find it an onerous process, and as well find I need to live with something for a while before subtleties may emerge. Having said that, when something as strong as the claims here are asserted, if some other amplifier sounds veiled and muffled, the claimant should be able to make identifications under the strictures of DBT. Galo should tell us what these newly-found-to-be-veiled amplifiers are, at least.
Some concerns emerge earlier in the review, among them his assertion that he's found soundstaging is better with dual-mono setups. Why? Considering that crosstalk, absent interchannel time delays, is not noticeable at -30dB or so---how much do we need? Since it is easy to achieve far better performance than 30dB for amplifiers and preamps without sweat, we may as well do it---but it is silly to read accounts of such equipment in which the reviewers cite the fabulously delineated soundstage as accounted for by the stupendously low crosstalk. Rubbish, delusional.
Makes sense to me. Major contributor would be that the PSs of the two sets of circuits are far closer to being truly independent - modulation of the "imperfect" voltage rails of one channel has far less impact on the other channel's rails - low level detail is less distorted - soundstaging is better ... it all follows ...
Quite possibly grounding. Having two galvanically isolated amps makes optimal grounding of the two channels easier - that is assuming signal transformers aren't being used. I found grounding improvements to my stereo integrated amp improved the soundstage depth.
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