Integrated amp: Component weight

Im all about the weight. Many praise the Benchmark AHB2 that weighs 5lbs. No way will I buy something like that. It all about the heft imo.

I think it is all about the speaker. My current speaker had the same bass response with the AHB2 (stereo) and the 110 lbs CODA #16 (a bass monster on all speakers I tried)

What associated equipment was in your system when you were evaluating the Benchmarks? Are you talking about the LA4 and AHB2?

If I went that route, I’d probably add a DAC3 and some third-party streamer, so I’d be getting into the $15,000 range, not including interconnects and power cords. At this point, weight, SQ, and connectivity are more important than cost, though. (Within reason, of course!)

With the Benchmark gear I have much better experience with their low cost XLR between amp and preamp ($200 for 20 feet). I use Audience XLR and RCA from the source to the preamp. The BM gear is AES48 compatible (for XLRs). I use Benchmark XLR from the DAC3B to the preamp. Though the DAC3B is not the end all of DACs (a little hot but good with Harbeth). The only place where I really want non-BM cables is the speaker cable (I use Audience FrontRow). The BM speaker cable is good on a bright speaker.

Using non-BM power cables is something I also never do on BM gear. Other gear, I use non-stock cables. Reviewers may say different, but this how my ears hear the BM gear. I even have some 15-foot amp power cables from BM, very useful, cheap, and sounds fine.

On the used market you can hookup the 3 BM components for under $6500 (with BM cables). The form factor is rather small with all 3 units stacked on top, which is fine to do with BM gear.

@cundare2 Here is another suggestion for your Harbeth. I have heard Harbeth with the very best Luxman gear and liked it, but I knew I would not like it long term. It was too lush. Lots of people like that type of sound and the KRELL K-300i integrated sounds as good as that very expensive Luxman stack I demoed.

I owned the K-300i and it can be bought used for around $6000. The DAC is very good, you can do better with an external DAC. The RJ45 streaming was great (not as good as fibre optic) but great for RJ45. The ROON READY was a delight, especially the volume control from my iPhone (it is done as analog on the integrated).

The KRELL is sonically the opposite of the Benchmark stack. The KRELL weighs 52 lbs. Read the Stereophile review of the Boulder 866 and see what they say about the KRELL in comparison. The KRELL is a great integrated. I liked it even more than the CODA CSiB I owned.

K-300i Integrated Stereo Amplifier Technical Specifications – Krell (krellhifi.com)

Not listed above but the first 90 watts are in Class A. It is the KRELL's cool running iBias Class A which sounds as good as my CODA #16 traditional Class A.

Interesting topic.

If I am OP, I choose house sound first,not the weight, as I can't carry it, I will ask for help,it is the one time moving and it is not a big deal.

Different brands make very very different sound and individual people always have their perfection. 

Ayre's Site: EX-8 2.0

Speaker Output:

100 watts per channel continuous into 8 ohms
170 watts per channel continuous into 4 ohms

original ask was for 200 to 300 wpc. I considered 200 wpc a minimum, yes?