[stemiki]

You should write to John Siau in Benchmark. It doesn't go often on Head Fi.

 

[Slim1970]

My less than 2 months old HPA4 suddenly stopped working without any output to my headphone while playing. Seems like certain protection mechanism kicked in but I have left the device power off for an hour, detached / re-attached all cables and I also tried to change the power cord but nothing changed. The amp keeps producing clicking sounds continuously (just like turning the volume relay) but no sound coming out from the headphone output. What should I do next? Anyone experienced similar issue?

@jsiau Do you have any suggestion? I am located at Hong Kong and bought my HPA4 directly from Benchmark online, and I would like to avoid sending the amp back to the US for repair, if possible...............

This is one of the first real failures I’ve read about for the HPA4. I hope you can get it sorted out, good luck.

 

[lumdicks]

My less than 2 months old HPA4 suddenly stopped working without any output to my headphone while playing. Seems like certain protection mechanism kicked in but I have left the device power off for an hour, detached / re-attached all cables and I also tried to change the power cord but nothing changed. The amp keeps producing clicking sounds continuously (just like turning the volume relay) but no sound coming out from the headphone output. What should I do next? Anyone experienced similar issue?

@jsiau Do you have any suggestion? I am located at Hong Kong and bought my HPA4 directly from Benchmark online, and I would like to avoid sending the amp back to the US for repair, if possible...............

Service of Benchmark confirmed that it is a failure of input stage so I need to send it back to the US for repair...............

Thanks all for the kind suggestion and help. Hard to live without the HPA4 for quite a while.

To drive my Susvara during the period, I have just got a Burson Conductor 3X Reference. While it sounds great and amazing, I still prefer the cleanliness, transparent and the distortion free sound of my Benchmark.

 

[stemiki]

A few days ago I received the M Scaler that I inserted in my system. I must say that it is the most impressive thing of all that I've tried so far.
I'm scared of what I'm hearing! HPA4 keeps me unchanged everything HMS + DAVE are doing ...

 

[phthora]

Service of Benchmark confirmed that it is a failure of input stage so I need to send it back to the US for repair...............

Thanks all for the kind suggestion and help. Hard to live without the HPA4 for quite a while.

To drive my Susvara during the period, I have just got a Burson Conductor 3X Reference. While it sounds great and amazing, I still prefer the cleanliness, transparent and the distortion free sound of my Benchmark.

Solidarity, man. Here's hoping for a quick return trip for your amp.

I recently visited the DAC/amp that I upgraded from, so I know how hard it can be to go back. For me, it was like visiting an old ex-girlfriend: all I could think was, "why was I with you for so long!?"

Anyway, hang in there. It'll be worth the wait.

 

[lumdicks]

Solidarity, man. Here's hoping for a quick return trip for your amp.

I recently visited the DAC/amp that I upgraded from, so I know how hard it can be to go back. For me, it was like visiting an old ex-girlfriend: all I could think was, "why was I with you for so long!?"

Anyway, hang in there. It'll be worth the wait.

Something strange but happy happened this morning. Before sending out my HPA4 back to Benchmark, I decided to open the top cover and take a look inside, pressing different parts, cables and a small component (like a micro SD card in a slot) and power on the unit. Surprisingly the clicking sounds disappeared and my unit was back to life! Will observe for a couple of days but just tried using HPA4 as line amp to my Burson and it drove my Susvara wonderfully!

 

[phthora]

Something strange but happy happened this morning. Before sending out my HPA4 back to Benchmark, I decided to open the top cover and take a look inside, pressing different parts, cables and a small component (like a micro SD card in a slot) and power on the unit. Surprisingly the clicking sounds disappeared and my unit was back to life! Will observe for a couple of days but just tried using HPA4 as line amp to my Burson and it drove my Susvara wonderfully!

Great news! Maybe something just shifted in shipping or... who knows. I was leaning towards an issue with the mute feature myself. But, I'm glad it's up and running again and without missing out on too much listening time. Fingers crossed that your fix is permanent.

In the meantime, here's one for from the realm of 'turns out that repair was unnecessary' to further bolster your mood... The first time I used my iFi Black Label as a standalone DAC feeding into an external amp I discovered that the left channel produced nothing but horrific noise. I mean, full-blast THD+N at 100%. It took me a good five minutes of panicky tinkering to figure out the problem: I had plugged the left channel of the RCA cables into the SPDIF in/out instead of the RCA out. Oops. In my defense, the layout of the RCA ports is absurdly counterintuitive: SPDIF is all the way on the left side, right channel is placed in the middle, left channel is placed all the way on the right side. I must have seen R and assumed that L would be to the left of it. Or something.

Anyway, enjoy that HPA4 once more!

 

[lumdicks]

Something strange but happy happened this morning. Before sending out my HPA4 back to Benchmark, I decided to open the top cover and take a look inside, pressing different parts, cables and a small component (like a micro SD card in a slot) and power on the unit. Surprisingly the clicking sounds disappeared and my unit was back to life! Will observe for a couple of days but just tried using HPA4 as line amp to my Burson and it drove my Susvara wonderfully!

Line Amp of HPA4 pairs perfectly with Burson Conductor 3XR with sufficient juice for my Susvara.

 

[ceteris paribus]

Line Amp of HPA4 pairs perfectly with Burson Conductor 3XR with sufficient juice for my Susvara.

What a relief, huh? But, are you saying that using HPA4 as pre-amp into Burson sounds better than listening to HPA4 directly with Susvara?
(BTW, I find it strange that international Benchmark customers only get 2 year warranty while U.S. customers get 5 years.)
And, not gonna' lie; spent more time gazing at the various configurations of your awesome set-up than I care to admit.

 

[lumdicks]

What a relief, huh? But, are you saying that using HPA4 as pre-amp into Burson sounds better than listening to HPA4 directly with Susvara?
(BTW, I find it strange that international Benchmark customers only get 2 year warranty while U.S. customers get 5 years.)
And, not gonna' lie; spent more time gazing at the various configurations of your awesome set-up than I care to admit.

Yes. Seems that Susvara enjoys every juice of power! I am still playing around different configurations of my gears, lucky that I have a week of holiday next week so............

 

[alekc]

Yes. Seems that Susvara enjoys every juice of power! I am still playing around different configurations of my gears, lucky that I have a week of holiday next week so............

Very interesting finding... thanks for sharing those details @lumdicks I'm considering HPA4 for my next amp, but I dislike the idea of adding it as a preamp, since I'm looking for simpler chain.

 

[lumdicks]

Very interesting finding... thanks for sharing those details @lumdicks I'm considering HPA4 for my next amp, but I dislike the idea of adding it as a preamp, since I'm looking for simpler chain.

On standalone basis HPA4 is capable of driving all headphones including Susvara, despite I need to have a +8db boost and only have 10% headroom away from the maximum volume.

 

[briantrinh86]

Thanks for the information. I was asking as i just got both the Abyss and the HPA4 yesterday. Of course viewers would say test it yourself then. Well i spent most of today doing just that. I must preface that i am totally unfamiliar with the HPA4 and have only tested the Abyss on Dave + Blu2 + Woo Audio WA33 before. Using my Qutest into HPA4 via rca and to Abyss via xlr, i had to set volume to between -10 and -17 which a bit disconcerting as you start from -100. With the hd800s the volume setting was -17 to -22. However using XLR from Denafrips Terminator using Ayre CX7 as transport, the volume setting for Abyss was -6 to -10 and for hd800s -12 to -16. Sorry i dont know what the numbers represent as i just picked it off the HPA4 display on volume. Initially i was surprised that there was no sound until i really cranked it right up.
However, after i reached those volume levels i got sound that i was not familiar with. It sounded different from my existing IHA6 Cayin and R28 AudioGd. Very black background and transparent with no addon sound artifacts. I suppose it was because every piece in the chain is very revealing/clinical. Well the end result was that the sound was glorious. Musical, deep, transparent and natural. I fell asleep listening to it and woke up happy. I was listening to mainly orchestral pieces.

how the sound of the hpa4 over the cayin iha6? i have cayin iha6 paired with abyss ab1266 and i want something more. is this a significant upgrade from cayin iha6? thanks

 

[Michalmk6]

Is anyone running a tube preamp with a HPA4? I have a Decware CSP3 tube amp which I would like to connect to a solid state amp for harder to drive headphones.

 

[Fysty]

Is anyone running a tube preamp with a HPA4? I have a Decware CSP3 tube amp which I would like to connect to a solid state amp for harder to drive headphones.

Yes, I’ve fed my HPA4 with both a Feliks Echo 2 and an LTA MZ3. Provides some nice options depending on my listening mood. Also allows the HPA4 to drive the headphones while still getting the tube sound.