Benchmark LA4

**nicoludio** · July 19, 2020, 08:28 AM

Notice the little David among the Goliaths in Mike’s latest mbl 101e mk 2 install

Originally Posted by apdoc2004

Joe,

Thanks for the wonderful description. Try it with your CJ Gat 2 and tell us what you are hearing. What are you waiting for?!! You have such a wonderful valve preamp in your stable.
I have the Benchmark LA4 preamp. It is scary how close it comes to the Ayre KXR 20 in performance.
Anshul

Originally Posted by nicoludio

Interesting I have the LA4 too.

Two others have similarly compared it to the mbl 6010d & Robert Koda (K10, I believe). The owners of the mbl and the RK own the LA4 too. It is not embarrassed in such company.

**CPP** · July 19, 2020, 09:26 AM

Interesting

**joeinid** · July 19, 2020, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by CPP

Interesting

Very! Benchmark is awesome, but I’ve not tried the preamp.

**Oly** · July 19, 2020, 10:07 AM

I’m guessing that some of the Goliath pieces have power cords costing more than the LA4. It must be something special to have a place in that system.

**CPP** · July 19, 2020, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by joeinid

Very! Benchmark is awesome, but I’ve not tried the preamp.

I never had any of their gear. The pre is interesting though. But its going to be hard to beat my W4S pre.

**Mike** · July 19, 2020, 10:52 AM

Measurement/spec wise, the MBL preamp just reviewed was the only one to beat it in Stereophile.

The VC makes that loud “click, click, click” as you turn it up/down.

It sounded good. Those Pass amps were singing!

**joeinid** · July 19, 2020, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by CPP

I never had any of their gear. The pre is interesting though. But its going to be hard to beat my W4S pre.

I have to admit my stage 2 W4S is very special.

**Randy Myers** · July 20, 2020, 08:05 AM

The only Benchmark I have owned was their DACs. Solid well made gear but they were also very sterile sounding, too analytic for my taste, not what I would call musical. Honestly, sound wise I was very un-impressed after living with them.

Several members of our audio club have had Benchmark pieces and almost everyone of us have moved on. The Benchmark always sounded good initially, but that analytic, designed for how they test in a lab quality became harsh after some time. Most all of us moved to more musical sounding pieces.

A pre-amp is essential in the over all performance of a system, in my view. That amazing system would be well served with a more appropriate pre-amp in my humble opinion (not necessarily meaning more expensive just more musical).

**yyzSB** · July 30, 2020, 02:53 AM

Nice to read these comments on the LA4. I bought the HPA4 headphone amp/preamp on the assumption that it would pair great with something like the Luxman m900u or CODA #16 (very quiet at 130 SNR). I was considering spending much more for the Mola Mola Makua preamp + optional DAC, but now after many months of listening daily I think the HPA4 (same as LA4) is incredible and will center my system like in the photo above.

**CPP** · July 30, 2020, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by joeinid

Very! Benchmark is awesome, but I’ve not tried the preamp.

I sure didn't like their DACS. I found them to be a little hyper detailed in my system. OF course my opinion.

**Randy Myers** · July 30, 2020, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by CPP

I sure didn't like their DACS. I found them to be a little hyper detailed in my system. OF course my opinion.

100% my opinion on their DACs as well, and I did own two different ones including their current top of the line unit. Far too analytic. From everything I have read, talking with folks at Benchmark, and using them, I believe this is their design. They rely very much on test numbers. I prefer to rely on listening and my ears... musicality is so much more important than the test numbers.

**CPP** · July 30, 2020, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

100% my opinion on their DACs as well, and I did own two different ones including their current top of the line unit. Far too analytic. From everything I have read, talking with folks at Benchmark, and using them, I believe this is their design. They rely very much on test numbers. I prefer to rely on listening and my ears... musicality is so much more important than the test numbers.

I really don't place a ton of merit in measurements to make a decision on a purchase, measurements might be ok to identify the quality of the device and its assembly, but I don't listen to measurements I listen to the music coming from the device and the components in the assembled system, then I decide on how to spend my cash.

**yyzSB** · July 31, 2020, 12:25 PM

I am looking to get a R2R DAC to pair with the HPA4. I have the Benchmark DAC3B at the moment and I will add a R2R DAC as a second option to my HPA4 setup. Variety.

At the moment I am considering the Denafrips Terminator Plus with the IRIS DDC to get I2S connectivity.

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