New AVR

[holmancv]

I'm looking to make my next upgrade at the receiver level. I'm considering B&K, Sunfire and Outlaw. I was in Toys-R-Us, OK, that was a bad attempt at humor, I meant my favorite store, Magnolia HiFi looking and listing to the B&K when I noticed the incredible amount of heat it seemed to be putting off. Has anyone else noticed this? Love to hear from you lucky B&K owners out there. Happy Holidays

 

[Robin]

B&K AVR's...

I'm looking to make my next upgrade at the receiver level. I'm considering B&K, Sunfire and Outlaw. I was in Toys-R-Us, OK, that was a bad attempt at humor, I meant my favorite store, Magnolia HiFi looking and listing to the B&K when I noticed the incredible amount of heat it seemed to be putting off. Has anyone else noticed this? Love to hear from you lucky B&K owners out there. Happy Holidays

holmancv,

I noticed that too, a while ago, when I was auditioning at Magnolia Hi-Fi... I was told that was 'normal' heat disbursion. Just how the class "A" AVR's worked... I was to discover later, B&K's run hot, because of how they are desinged and ML's draw so much from them, when playing, especially the AVR's... I also discovered that Magnolia Hi-Fi, pushes the B&K's gear, at there stores. IMHO, for my ears, the B&K AVR's as well as seporates were too bright and brassy with ML's. I would recommend that you audition more prespective gear in your own HT. Ask to take it home over night and see how it sounds in your system... Try several brands at home. Also, I would recommend that you try seporates instead of AVR's. IMHO, AVR's are not powerful enought to drive ML's, especially for HT (5.1 or 7.1) or to make them sing properly. 'Trust your ears - not the spec.'s', Roberto you are an aduio 'God'...

Happy hunting. Enjoy your audio quest (pun intended)...

Cheers

-Robin

 

[attyonline]

B&K receivers do very well with ML speakers, esp in home theater since you would normally use a sub which would take the load off the receiver. Other than Robin, I have never heard anyone descibe B&K as bright. To me and most everyone I know, B&K is a little toward the warm and dark side of neutral, which point of view has been reflected in numerous professional reveiws. The receivers run hot regardless of what speaker you drive with them. They have plenty of power and can easily drive four ohm loads. If you need more power you can always buy a stereo amp to drive the main L-R speakers. I prefer Rotel or Arcam, but B&K makes a great receiver which you would enjoy.

 

[DTB300]

Other than Robin, I have never heard anyone descibe B&K as bright.

Add two more to the list, as my friend and I both feel they sound on the bright or thin side. Older B&K stuff was not like this. But I give B&K a listen anytime I can just to see if the setup or associated equipment makes a difference.

But everyone should listen for themselves and make their own determination on their sound.

Dan

 

[68sting]

I started with a Denon 5803 and didn't like it. I then went to a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver and love it. My Sunfire runs cool, has a warm sound, great remote, is lightweight, and runs my 7 ML's quite well. Highly recommended.

 

[kach22i]

You could always run it with the cover off (I guess) if heat were a big problem. I've done that with my tube preamp, so far I'm happy. I keep an LP over it to keep the dust off when not in use.

 

[Reverb2009]

The B&K amps and receivers run hot by design. They use MOSFET technology, and that tech requires the amp to store up more energy than it needs so it has plenty of power to back up those thundering moments in a movie, or in your music. The reason an amp is putting out heat is because of wasted energy. The amp will dispense any unused electricity by way of heat. When the B&K or any MOSFET amp is at idle is will be very hot, but when you start to crank it up and use its power the chassis will become cooler.

Not all amps work like this, Sunfire amps use a tracking down converter to track the audio single, the Sunfire only consumes about 7 watts more then it needs, wile I believe the B&K is around 32watts.

I have tried one of B&K’s little 125.5 amps and did find it to be a grate space heater and a nice little amp, but its sound was artificial and lacking warmth. The Sunfire Cinema Grand gave me that worth I was looking for but I lost the big bass. The Sunfire may be rated for 70 amps of current compared to the 125.5’s 30 amps, but the B&K was far better with low-end bass, I have to crank the sunfire way up to get any ware close to what the less powerful B&K could do.

As Roberto says “Trust Your Ears”