Best Of

The innards of an Outlaw Model 7000x amplifier rated at 130 watts per channel into 8 ohms (but I suspect it's a little conservative). A bit of a difference.

And still only $1100.

For reference, the innards of the $4800 Marantz Cinema 30 and the $3800 Marantz Cinema 40 below. Note the differences in the transformers and heat sinks but also note how tiny they are for AB amplification. Also note the processing chips with the big heat sinks, which is where a lot of the cost goes in these things. Somehow the prices on receivers like these doubled in price over the years without me noticing!

....and we are off.

Gentlemen, place your bets now.

Tom

Well let's see if we can get this thread back on track. These things seem to go sideways at times. LOL!

First off this is not at all about power. In fact I'm giving up a ton of power. The A21+ is rated at 300/500 into 8/4 ohms whereas the AHB2 is rated at 100/190 into 8/4 ohms. One would certainly think this wouldn't be a fair fight. Things can certainly be deceiving though.

To address the HT issue I'm sure my Yammie AVENTAGE RX-3010 AVR can handle my HT needs but I've always had a dedicated 2 channel amp for double duty running my fronts in both HT & for 2 channel.

I purchased the A21+ a few years back to give my Maggie 1.7i's some more juice. I certainly did the trick & kept me quite happy. Now the Maggies have been replaced with JBL HDI 1600 monitors (85db/4ohm). The reason on switching things up is downsizing & wanting to replace the A21+ with a smaller, lighter amp without sacrificing musicality. I did extensive research & took a shot with the AHB2. I never heard one in person & went strictly by reviews & Benchmark's no risk 30 day return policy.

A little about my room (13x30x7) & also I've been in this house since 1992 & the room hasn't changed except for new furniture over the years & always in the same spot so it's safe to say that I know my rooms sonic attributes like the back of my hand. So whenever I would audition new gear it didn't take me long to decipher whether it was a keeper or just a lateral move.

Now enter the AHB2...I had no idea what to expect and was unbiased in my upcoming listening challenge. To be brutally honest I was taken back by the AHB2 & it literally walked all over the A21+! Yes you heard that right, the AHB2 was like David vs Goliath. I was in disbelief at first but needed to validate my listening experience. As good as the A21+ is, & it's one fine amp the AHB2 just revealed things that the A21+ just wasn't capable of.

A few of the AHB2's attributes: It delivered so much more detail in low level listening that I didn't know was there until I actually heard it & this is with music that I've very familiar with. Again scratching my head here with what I'm hearing. The music just sprang to life in ways that were not present with the A21+. There is no sweet spot with this puppy...the sweet spot is now the entire front stage, behind & off to the sides of the speakers, I couldn't believe it. I just find myself enjoying the music so much more now & am totally engaged in ways that I didn't experience with the A21+. Needless to say it's found a new home & I couldn't be happier. If anyone is looking into a new amp I can highly recommend you put this on your list.

Also you can always add another one if you feel the need for more power & run them both as mono blocks. Benchmark designed these to perform just as well in bridged mono as stereo.

Cheers,
Phil

I'm not saying Denon and Marantz receivers won't run a full home theater system, but am saying most receivers alone won't get the best out of the Reserve speakers above a certain point. Pioneer Elite receivers with Class D amps were an exception but the two I still have don't really sound all that great to me by themselves for anything but movies.

Anyway, the main topic here is high quality amplification for stereo listening enjoyment rather than watching a movie in surround sound. I do agree that B&K amplification was way ahead of most because they cared about their customers in that regard. They went out of business not because of their amplifiers but because of not being able to bring their own processors to market and compete. Parasound learned that lesson before it was too late for them. I ran through a few B&K pieces and really enjoyed them but once the company was gone so was my B&K gear.

FWIW, I've been tinkering with home theaters for a bit since I was a youngster back in the days of Dolby Matrix surround in the 1980s. I had an excellent high-current Akai integrated amp back then that broke after a couple years and no longer had repair parts available and the company offered me a brand spanking new comparably priced "home theater" receiver as a replacement. The integrated amp had no problem powering my main speakers and sounded a whole lot better than the receiver and the receiver had a habit of blowing out the tweeters on my speakers. Fortunately just needed a trip to Radio Shack for replacements back then. But, lesson learned long long ago.