Benchmark LA4 Preamp?

@flat4 Yes both XLR and RCA can be used at the same time. I'm about to list one for sale, feel free to PM me.

It looks like I blabbered a lot on this thread. So here is one more:

I have some incredible sound in my office now. It is a small room with a big Thiel CS3.7 speaker. The system is composed of the following:

1) Benchmark DAC3B (connected to XLR1 on HPA4)
2) Benchmark HPA4
3) Benchmark AHB2 x 2
4) Benchmark StarQuad XLR between all the gear listed above
5) Audience FrontRow speaker cable with SpeakON amp connections

I also have 3 other sources connected to the HPA4:
- XLR2: Sony SCD-1 SACD (no DSP used)
- RCA1: Magnum Dynalab 102 tuner (no DSP used)
- RCA2: AudioMirror Tubadour III SE DAC (shipped tomorrow, will use DSP)

I mentioned earlier in the 11-17-2019 post that if I were to get a big speaker and use DSP I would not be able to use a Benchmark preamp. That was a wrong statement. I discovered ROON Convolution files that allows the application of DSP before the ROON server sends the bits to the DAC. I had these Convolution files remotely created for me by a professional sound engineer (a real star at this). They run on my ROON server which sends the bits to my Benchmark DAC3B (or AMT3SE DAC) and then that outputs analog to the Benchmark preamp.

This is such a good sounding system now. The only change I will ever need to to this office system is recalibrate the Convolution files if I move to a new house.

I should add that I also added Fibre optical streaming via a few components to the DAC3B. With the highly resolving Benchmark stack it was so easy to hear the improvement over my old microRendu streamer. So good that I bought a second set of the same streaming gears for the AMT3SE that is on it’s way.

@yyzsantabarbara Make sure you give your AMT3 at least 50 hours of break in. Of all the components I’ve owned, the change in sound was the most dramatic for this one. For the first 20 hours, I thought I made a mistake and was ready to return it. Glad I persisted though. 

@arafiq  The AMT designer, Vlad, told me the same today. Minimum of 50 hours. However, I see others saying 100-150 for some caps that my unit has. This DAC will used mostly with the RAAL SR1a headphones and the CODA CSiB. I think it will be amazing.

The AMT will also get playtime with the Benchmark stack too. I was told I may not be able have the RCA and XLR DAC outputs connected at the same time with the AMT DAC. Unlike my Benchmark DAC3B which has no problem with RCA and XLR outputs connected at the same time to the CODA integrated and HPA4 preamp. Not a big deal to work around that though.

Hello yyzsantabarbara,

      And you claim you actually get work done in this so called office?  
     You lost me at Convolution files, it's the first I've heard mention of these.  Could you describe the concept and the audible benefits you perceive from using them?

Thanks,
   Tim