Benchmark AHB2 - To 'mono' or not to 'mono'

Tell me you’ve done it both ways with this amp and your way is better; I will gladly spend what I have to in order to try it.

Yes with many amps I have, not with this amp. There is no valid reason to believe it won’t be the same as EE engineering principals would prove it to be the same also.

There is no "magic voodoo" circuit in the AHB2 that can turn the EE engineering principals around 180 degrees and make it better spec’d bridged than in non bridged mode.
It will always have better specs in "stereo mode" than in "bridged mode", (save for extra wattage in bridged that all.)
Believe what you want, it sad though.

Cheers George

@@Georgehifi

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the potential root cause for change in SQ for mono application.

I would like to try ‘vertical passive bi-amping’, as per your suggestion. But since, I will have to spend some more time/effort/$$ to get appropriate speaker cables and other connectors, I guess it will have to wait for some time. Also, it will give me only 200watts per channel, and not 380watts, which I expected to get from the setup. Let me know, what you think.

I waited for the delivery of this second ahb2 for 2.5 months, but now I am truly shocked/surprised/disappointed by the mono performance of this otherwise excellent amplifier, to say the least. There is no return-policy in the country where I am located. So, I am pretty much stuck with this, or I can try selling it. Or, maybe I need to give it a bit more time to ‘settle-in’ (I don’t even know how it will settle-in any more than what it is right now though. I was told there should be no break-in period for his amp).

This new sound reminds me of my short time (except the noise floor) with ‘Cambridge Audio 851W’ (Power Amplifier, 200Watts @8ohms) – costing just 22% of what I spent on two AHB2.

I hope I am doing something wrong with the setup and it will get fixed. I had high hopes from this combo.

@@mijostyn

Thanks for your suggestion. I will try reading-up on ‘Channel D’s Pure Music’, and educate myself on the technology/equipment.


I will spend more time with the system over the weekend and will update again!

Thanks all for your suggestions

ssnkssnk, my vote is that the amp needs break in or that you are doing something wrong that once corrected you will be fine. I have not heard or used the amps, but most if not all of the articles and reviews I have read indicated that if you need more power, mono block them.  

Also, it will give me only 200watts per channel, and not 380watts, which I expected to get from the setup. Let me know, what you think.

As I showed someone else, your ATC SCM-19’s have quite an easy 5-6ohm impedance curve (green) and a -phase angle that’s fine also (red) and are 85db efficient, so to have 200w or 380w won’t matter, as you will not clip the amp/s either way, before bottoming out the speaker first.
http://www.avmentor.net/reviews/lab/2016/atc_scm19/display/atc_scm19_impedance.jpg
So go with the better sounding configuration, and that’s vertical bi-amping of the 2 x stereo amps, you will be very pleased. 
And leave the bridging (mono’ing) up to guys that "think" they need the extra watts even though they are oblivious to the "fact" it effects the quality.

Cheers George