Benchmark AHB2 Impressions (vs. Vidar)

Minor necro here, but I just added an AHB2 to my system and it's a stunner. Driving it directly from the balanced output of a DAC1 set to 0 attenuation on the internal jumpers (max. output +29dbU), Variable mode, with the amp on the lowest gain setting/highest voltage sensitivity (9.2db gain.) Feeding a pair of B+W 804S which have some nasty weird impedance bumps, it's just lovely across the whole volume range from "easy before-breakfast quiet listening" to "punishingly loud." You don't hear the amp "working" to push the drivers at all.

The thing that is almost creepy is how low the system noise is. I can turn the DAC output up all the way into its boost range, and it doesn't even whisper noise in the tweeters! I know "black background" is a cliché, but I'm super impressed by how precisely it handles transient decays. Notes/sounds just drop away into silence exactly how they're supposed to, when they're supposed to, leaving extremely natural space for the things happening around them.

It's the exact opposite of congested, there's space and headroom for everything no matter what the output level is, right up until you're threatening lighting the Clip LED, and that's a heck of a good feeling. Plenty of amps make things sound lifeless and flat when you turn the source level down, or strident and compressed when you crank it up. This does not.