I am really curious as to whether there is some psycho-acoustic reason for this or limitations in what and how we measure these systems to begin with. I hate add fuel to this debate about whether amplifiers with great specs can sound different, as I went into this believing that it wasn't possible, but some of the differences we heard weren't subtle. He decided to pan the Benchmark and buy the Purifi instead. One of the reasons for the bakeoff was that one of the reviewers was seriously considering buying the Benchmark but wanted to do a comparison before. Based on the ASR reviews all of us went into thinking that Benchmark would be far ahead of the other 2 amplifiers based on its measurements. This wasn't the result that we were anticipating going into the comparisons. It was especially easy to hear differences for me with complex stringed instruments like a strummed acoustic guitar or cello and cymbals and triangles. What I noticed that distinguished the best (Purifi) from the worst (Benchmark) in my case was the following: The Purifi had better clarity, detail and high end compared to the other two, especially the Benchmark and it was noticeable. I was one of the reviewers and I picked the exact same order 100% of the time of the Purifi in the top spot followed by the McIntosh and the Benchmark as a distant 3rd place. Results: 2 out of 3 reviewers had very similar results with the Purifi in 1st place and the Benchmark in last place in all or a majority of the time, while one reviewer had mixed results from which we couldn't determine a specific pattern. Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C Major, Allegro - Mutter/Ma/Barenboim The Street only knew your name (extended version) - Van MorrisonĤ. Between switches loud music was played to drown out any switching related noises that could indicate which amplifier was being connected.Ģ. Each song was played and the reviewers wrote comments and then rank ordered amplifiers. The level was managed using the Topping D90SE in pre-amp mode and managed to about 90-95 db. Level Equalization: For each song/amplifier, a 1K sine wave was used to normalize the level to about 0.1 Db using a calibrated microphone, Focusrite 2i2 and REW before playback of each selection. Randomization: For each song selection: Each amplifier was randomly assigned a number 1,2,3, A random amplifier order was used for playback. Streamer: Tidal Bluesound Node connected via optical SPDIF to Topping D90SE Test Setup: Topping D90SE (balanced outputs) directly connected to each amplifier. We had 3 reviewers and a 4th person who switched the gear. We recently got a few folks together to do as close to a 'blind test' as we could of the Purifi Eval1, McIntosh MA252 and the Benchmark AHB2.

Benchmark ahb2 reviews