Benchmark Media Systems

About this resource

Benchmark began in 1983 as the Benchmark Sound Company in Garland, Texas. Founder Allen H. Burdick initially built equipment for television broadcast facilities; the company incorporated as Benchmark Media Systems in 1985 and moved to Syracuse, New York. Its company page says most products are designed, assembled and tested at the Syracuse facility. ^{[1] [2]}

The catalogue includes the DAC3 converter, AHB2 power amplifier, LA4 line preamplifier and HPA4 headphone amplifier/preamplifier. The HPA4 adds a THX-888 headphone stage and separate attenuation and gain control to the line-stage arrangement. Benchmark describes transparency as its engineering goal and explains that measurements and listening tests inform each other, rather than claiming that a basic distortion figure alone completely establishes audible performance. ^{[1] [2]}

The product families provide a compact route through digital conversion, speaker amplification and headphone listening. Application notes, manuals, drivers and video tutorials add technical context beyond the sales listings. Its direct-sales and dealer routes are distinct: the advertised home-trial policy applies only to qualifying factory-direct US orders, not automatically to dealer purchases. Product pages and the company-information section are therefore useful alongside the support and purchasing policies. ^{[1] [2]}