wglenn said Mind how you address Mr. Griego, lowly trumpet player. One does not make great music with valves!Then we simply turn to the natural trumpet, no valves! There is a plethora of great literature, especially from the 1600's.
A nice video of one of the reigning trumpet babes playing natural trumpet, plus an excellent excellent countertenor and other early instrumentalists. At 5:22 is one of the most gorgeous works for voice and trumpet, a favorite of mine to perform.
I got a call from Duncan Taylor yesterday who collected the balance due on my preorder for the BHK preamp…a signed copy. My production version has shipped with an ETA of Tuesday. I’ll take that as a good sign that beta testing went smoothly and Paul was comfortable pulling the trigger on the release of the preamp. I am looking forward to this addition to my system.
Regards
Jeff C
How exciting. Can’t wait to hear what you think!
Yes, please report in after you have a chance to listen.
Elk: Spectacular link. I’ll have to pick that one up (and not just for the picture of the lovely Ms Balsom). The legato tonguing is very smooth. Is that a function of the instrument at all or just her technique?
Of course, she would look really sexy with a trombone, but what woman wouldn’t?
The legato is a function of both the instrument (twice as long as a modern trumpet and the harmonics are closer together in the playing range) and her technique. She is equally as good on a modern trumpet as well as piccolo trumpet.
Many have not heard the wonderful sound of a natural trumpet so I proselytize.
Seems I misplaced a beta comment on switching the BHK Preamp from the RCA to the XLR outlets to connect with the BHK 250 - major improvement in sound stage (yet another) that results in a diminution in bass reverb - much smoother sound. I even found nuances on Buddy Holly tracks that I’d never heard before despite 50+ years of listening. Still working on the headphone amp - but this preamp is a winner.
Could it have been the cable?
has anyone a-b between the BETA PRE to ARC LS27, I am reading good things about the new PRE, but my system sounds great just thinking
would a trade in be cost effective , would the difference in preamps make that much for the sound difference for the better , what I have now is PS DSD, PS TRANSPORT, ARC LS27 PRE, AVA- 600R AMP with SALK SS 8 SPEAKERS
Paul McGowan said How exciting. Can't wait to hear what you think!
cam08529 said I got a call from Duncan Taylor yesterday who collected the balance due on my preorder for the BHK preamp.....a signed copy. My production version has shipped with an ETA of Tuesday. I'll take that as a good sign that beta testing went smoothly and Paul was comfortable pulling the trigger on the release of the preamp. I am looking forward to this addition to my system.Regards
Jeff C
Mark A.
wglenn said Could it have been the cable?Cable was the same MIT 330 - used Cardas XLR converters for the RCA ends and reduced volume.
Now researching balanced XLR ICs - so many to chose from with so many claims. Anyone used XLR cables with the BHK preamp? Recommendations?
I am using the Cardas clear XLR with great results between the BHK and Cary amp. In my journey, this past year, I came to a personal conclusion that regardless of the equipment I definitely prefer XLR to single ended. It’s not a small difference to my ears.
The Pass Labs Preamp was the X2.5 that I was comparing to (with same Cardas Clear XLR’s). The Cary Preamp was the SLP-98 with Cardas golden reference RCA’s. I am currently using the stock power cord that came with the BHK, and will probably change over to Cardas to compare that shortly.
I’m listening tonight with a friend who knows my room quite well. I have a feeling that after he hears the BHK, he is going to be placing one on order. He’s been using the Direct stream DAC (newest version) without a preamp and his system sounds great as is. We’re planning on taking out the BHK and installing it at his house shortly.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed with this experience, is being excited about the time I will have to listen. Vocal’s sound right, bad recordings sound like bad recordings, and out of tune playing is still out of tune. Funny how that never changes. There was a piccolo trumpet I was listening to last night and I almost had to pick up the needle as the player constantly drifted sharp and the tension in their sound made my body tight. At least I could hear the tension in the sound though… The other players were quite accomplished and making great sounds, so I kept on listening.
Christan Griego
Amen to bad recordings sounding like bad recordings - or at least bad remasters. Also appreciate your thoughts on the XLRs with the BHK units - that helps me look into better ICs.
Thanks for sharing
I, too, prefer the balanced IC’s. Currently I’m using Dana Cables balanced IC’s between the DSD and the BHK preamp, and Bogdan Audio XLR’s from the preamp to the BHK 300 mono blocks. The one opportunity I have where I’m not using XLR is between the PWT and DSD, there I’m using an I2S cable.
I a previous post I had made reference to the headphone amp not being as detailed as with another headphone amp I have with a balanced output. I am discovering that the BHK preamp combined with HD800 cans with a stock cable is an excellent combination.
Overall I consider the BHK preamp a winner.
Excellent review of the BHK preamp by Karl Sigman in today’s Audiophilia, www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2016/6/18/ps-audio-bhk-preamplifier.
BHK Preamp Beta Thoughts
I’ve been using the new BHK preamp for a few days now and I would like to share some thoughts.
I’ve always been a hands on guy, a tinkerer, an avid music lover since I got my fist handheld transistor radio for my 10th birthday (1970, just to put it in perspective). In my teens and early 20s I progressed to higher end products like a Sansui tuner, a Nakamichi cassette deck, various turntables (do you recall the vertically mounted turntables that had a linear tracking tone arm?), a Sansui integrated amp, and a pair of rather large Speaker Lab speakers which came as a kit and I got to assemble. Some of the components were great and some not so much. Most recently I have typically been using a PS DirectStream DAC with the XLR outputs feeding an Emotiva Control Freak (a volume control that eliminates the need for a preamp, even though the DirectStream has it’s own volume control… there’s a backstory there for another time.), directly into an Emotiva stereo power amp with the outputs driving a pair of B&W 803 Diamonds. The setup sounds pretty darn good across my varied musical collection of pop, classic rock, country, jazz, classical and a growing collection of high quality lossless digital files, such as the newly released offering from PS Audio.
Along comes the PS BHK Preamp beta. After getting it placed and connected using all XLR cables, I powered it on and waited. Esthetically it’s as pleasing, dare I say beautiful, as it’s PS siblings. I chose black to match the majority of my gear. I cued up my first digital file from Andreas Vollenweider, “Dance of the Masks”. A beautifully recorded piece, one of my favorites, and a great piece for tickling one’s ears with clarity, openness, a richness of sounds (some unusual) and an overall mesmerizing dynamic sound stage and image. It was clearer than ever with the BHK, with some high frequency detail I hadn’t noticed before. Very nice, I thought. As I progressed, I had to work with rebalancing the subwoofer due to the -6db at the RCA outputs vs the XLRs on the BHK Preamp outputs. I continued to listen to various artists and genres and I started to notice a harshness. Some of the higher frequencies, such as cymbals, seemed to be taking on an unnatural timbre. I began noticing other “unpleasantries” as well, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something just sounded odd and not very musical.
In comes the PS Stereo BHK Amp. A couple of days after receiving the Preamp I received a PS Stereo BHK Amp. A brute to be sure. 90-some pounds packaged and 80-some pounds on it’s own. I had wanted to listen and evaluate only the Preamp and not make any other equipment changes due to the possibility of introducing too many variables and not being able to evaluate the Preamp on it’s own merits. But do to the unpleasantries I was hearing I decided to replace the Emotiva with the PS Stereo. Wow!.. that was my first reaction after integrating the PS Stereo and listening to a few selections. ALL of the aforementioned unpleasantries disappeared and the system simply sang! Breadth, depth, dynamics and a smoothness across the board. It was enlightening and invigorating, to say the least. This is the kind of therapy I had been looking for!.. Wow!
I will have more comments and feedback as the break-in progresses, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts while they were fresh. I will continue to work with the room acoustics/treatments as well as tweaking the subwoofer. But so far so good and I expect the sound to get even better over time. Compared to my transistor radio, my listening has come a long way. This latest evolution seems like stepping into an IMAX theater after watching a movie in my living room.
Cheers,
Gene
Thanks for the initial report and welcome to the forum! I look forward to your updates as you get more time in with the preamp.
jag2003 said Excellent review of the BHK preamp by Karl Sigman in today's Audiophilia, www.audiophilia.com/reviews/2016/6/18/ps-audio-bhk-preamplifier.your link didn't work for me -
Nice review again for a PS Audio product.
Gene saidWow! Is right! Thanks Gene, what a great report.Along comes the PS BHK Preamp beta. After getting it placed and connected using all XLR cables, I powered it on and waited. Esthetically it’s as pleasing, dare I say beautiful, as it’s PS siblings. I chose black to match the majority of my gear. I cued up my first digital file from Andreas Vollenweider, “Dance of the Masks”. A beautifully recorded piece, one of my favorites, and a great piece for tickling one’s ears with clarity, openness, a richness of sounds (some unusual) and an overall mesmerizing dynamic sound stage and image. It was clearer than ever with the BHK, with some high frequency detail I hadn’t noticed before. Very nice, I thought. As I progressed, I had to work with rebalancing the subwoofer due to the -6db at the RCA outputs vs the XLRs on the BHK Preamp outputs. I continued to listen to various artists and genres and I started to notice a harshness. Some of the higher frequencies, such as cymbals, seemed to be taking on an unnatural timbre. I began noticing other “unpleasantries” as well, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something just sounded odd and not very musical.
In comes the PS Stereo BHK Amp. A couple of days after receiving the Preamp I received a PS Stereo BHK Amp. A brute to be sure. 90-some pounds packaged and 80-some pounds on it’s own. I had wanted to listen and evaluate only the Preamp and not make any other equipment changes due to the possibility of introducing too many variables and not being able to evaluate the Preamp on it’s own merits. But do to the unpleasantries I was hearing I decided to replace the Emotiva with the PS Stereo. Wow!.. that was my first reaction after integrating the PS Stereo and listening to a few selections. ALL of the aforementioned unpleasantries disappeared and the system simply sang! Breadth, depth, dynamics and a smoothness across the board. It was enlightening and invigorating, to say the least. This is the kind of therapy I had been looking for!.. Wow!
I have Emotiva amps in my home theater and they’re great for that - but they’re not BHK amps - and the synergy between the BHK preamp and amp is, well, nothing short of magical - as you have seen.
Thanks for posting!
Michael saidwglenn said Could it have been the cable?Cable was the same MIT 330 - used Cardas XLR converters for the RCA ends and reduced volume.
Now researching balanced XLR ICs - so many to chose from with so many claims. Anyone used XLR cables with the BHK preamp? Recommendations?