I never thought I would see the day, but with a migration to a fully-active 2 x 3 speaker setup underway, I have no need for a stereo line stage.
Manufactured in 10/2021 and bought by me from the official Benchmark UK distributor in 2022.
Updated to the latest firmware.
The HPA4 comes as standard without a remote (it’s an optional extra). Easily obtained from a Benchmark dealer for ~£115. I have a remote, which I bought with, and is still in use with my DAC3 HGC. Could be a point for negotiation if it’s a deal-breaker.
Looking for around £2250. New RRP is £3499, ex demo units go on sale for around £2699. Lovingly cared for in a smoke-free home.
My original plan was for the PMS to be a purely passive build, however, I couldn’t shoehorn the crossovers into the cabinet whilst keeping them accessible in the future, so I put them in external boxes with three sets of cables, one connecting to each of the three drive units.
Someone suggested that was a great idea because I could go fully active later on!
I started tinkering with REW for room correction which was very successful, which then got me thinking about fully active operation. Then I found Acourate and Hang Loose Convolver and I’m now very deep in the rabbit hole with a mini PC, a Motu Ultralite Mk5 and soon a Lundahl VC2361, 6-channel analogue volume control.
At the moment, I’m still running passively (albeit with the room correction convolution filters handled via the PC running HLC with the Motu interface/multi-channel DAC rather than previously within Roon) whilst I figure out getting everything working together and do all the Acourate measurements.
Matters are further complicated by also using the hifi for TV listening. I need to be able to push both audio from Roon and the 48/16 TOSLINK output from the TV into HLC to apply the crossover filters and do it with seamless automation to avoid any conflict with Mrs Mad Scientist!
The exemplary perseverance you are exhibiting with this whole build is absolutely incredible - wish for you that all the rest of the pieces just fall into place.
