No, mine is most definitely stripped. It felt weird from the get-go. Yes on the balance settings. I spent hours eliminating issues trying to track down the imbalance , and will be back on it this weekend. Thanks for your suggestion.
When I suspect an imbalance problem I get the AC voltmeter out.
I play a cd with a -20dB tone and measure the voltage at the speaker terminals. With my current amp I measure 282 MV AC on the left and 275 MV AC on the right. This is with a not that loud a setting of 53 on the Direct Stream.
If the imbalance is significant, swap input cables to the amp and measure again. Working back in this manner should reveal the culprit.
Obviously if there is very little measured imbalance then probably your electronics are good and you can look elsewhere.
woot said CAUTION!!! I stripped one of my spade lugs with not all that much torque. These spade lugs take a bit of getting used to. When you loosen them they come un-threaded, but don't come off the post. They are a bit finicky to get started again. The one that stripped did come off and the threads are REALLY fine. I contacted PSA but have not heard back from them yet. Scott Schroeder may be at THE Show in Newport, I don't know. I'm hopeing to not have to send it back, hoping PSA can send me the part. I'm adept at soldering if it needs that. Hopefully Paul or somebody will chime in.Yes, I already mentioned this problem. One of the nuts is stuck and the whole bind post rotates. I'm very hesitant to unscrew the speaker cables and measure if the internal wiring is intact. I'm afraid that after the next "retightening" I will have to send the unit back to PSA...
@ PSAudio - do you have a photo of how the binding posts are connected inside the chassis?
woot saidWhat about a constant test signal (let's say 1kHz sinus), a resistor and a voltmeter?Also I do not notice much difference in volume running balanced. Running my pre amp at “72” which is Unity Gain level with balanced cables volume was 97 Left, 92 Right at 1 meter C weighting, slow on a Rat Shack sound pressure meter running pink noise via CD or JRiver. With RCA’s it was 96 Left, 91 Right. I’m trying to figure out why there is a 5dB difference between channels. I’m thing the DAC or possibly my speakers.
A quick note about a very interesting album to test your rig: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goat_Rodeo_Sessions
“The Goat Rodeo Sessions is a 2011 collaborative album by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.”
“On February 10, 2013, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album and the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.”
Check for string instruments separation (plus two voices on two tracks - 6 distinct sources of sound), instrument body, texture, double bass strings vibrations (droning) and room reverberation.
st50maint saidObviously if there is very little measured imbalance then probably your electronics are good and you can look elsewhere.
I remember once I blamed my old Ascents for 2-3dB difference (I though the electrostatic panel became too old). It turned out that one yucca (we have two by the window behind the speakers) was placed too close to the center.
With about 75 hours of break-in so far I’ve discovered a new hobby with the BHK stereo. While waiting for break-in to complete and playing some 2Cellos albums I’ve discovered that I can look into the 3D space in front of me, pinpoint the instruments’ locations (And the Streets did this up to this point) but the new thing that the Streets didn’t do is that I can now get a much better feeling of how each note was created. I know this doesn’t make any sense, but in the 2Cellos case, for example, the staccato notes played with the bow (vs. plucked) are so magnificently reproduced by the BHK in the 3D region in front of me I begin to wonder and imagine how the bow hair and cello string physically interact and interfere with each other to create the classic ‘resin’ sound produced by stringed instruments. So as I listen I’m trying to picture in my mind the microscopic motions of both the string and bow hair that are needed to create that unique sound. It’s a totally new experience. (OK, OK, it seems weird, but that’s where my mind drifts. Some folks actually see colors when they hear music. I can’t do that. I’m hearing so many harmonics I try and picture how the note is created.)
Second thing: In the Dave Grusin album “In the Digital Mood,” a recording of Glenn Miller’s songs done in the early '80’s, I had brought a CD copy with me when I listened to the IRS V’s in music room 1 (before BHK was working in prototype) Paul’s immediate reaction: “Bad recording,” as some of the instruments sounded blended and the soundstage didn’t seem accurate. I agreed. Cymbals seemed too distant and the soudstage was not crisp. Flash forward to my living room, same recording, but now with BHK. Yup. Sounds good now. Yes, the cymbals are way in the back, but they’re present now, and the saxes and trombones are right where they should be. Ooh. It’s nice.
That’s all for now.
–SSW
System: PSAudio DirectStream DAC, AudioResearch LS26 preamp, BHK stereo amp, MartinLogan Spire speakers, MartinLogan Depthi subwoofer, P10 power plant, Herbie’s tenderfeet isolators, XLO Reference 3 speaker cable, PS Audio Transcendent XLR interconnects from DAC-to-preamp and preamp-to-amp.
Streets Still Works said Some folks actually see colors when they hear music. I can't do that. I'm hearing so many harmonics I try and picture how the note is created.)I "see" images
Alekz, The Goat Rodeo Sessions is an excellent album. I have it in 88/24 (from hdtracks.com). Good recommendation.
I have the balance issue resolved- it is my pre amp. Changing inputs solved that problem. The BHK does go into protection mode at unity gain however, driving 93 dB speakers.
How do you define “unity gain”?
The BHK’s owners manual says it has a gain of 30.5 dB.
st50maint said How do you define "unity gain"?BHK here: Unity gain simply means that the output voltage is the same as the input voltage. Classically in the past, preamps used to have an overall gain of 20 dB and when the volume control was at 12 o'clock, the attenuation of the volume control was -20 dB and thus the overall gain from input to output was unity or 0 dB. Interestingly, if, in one's system, the volume control was lower than at mid rotation, all that gain in the line stage amplifier (that which follows the volume and balance controls) was not being used. This fact easily lead to the logic of having no active stages and using just the passive volume control. Many such devices have been made and used over the years and there are some plusses and minuses to each approach.The BHK’s owners manual says it has a gain of 30.5 dB.
Oh, the BHK signature amps do have a gain of 30.5 dB or 33.5X meaning the the output voltage from the amp is 33.5 times larger than the input voltage.
woot said I have the balance issue resolved- it is my pre amp. Changing inputs solved that problem. The BHK does go into protection mode at unity gain however, driving 93 dB speakers.BHK Here: It is very confusing what you say about the protection circuitry being tripped at "unity gain". What you probably mean is that your preamp is set to a volume setting that provides unity in/out gain? Or maybe you don't have a preamp and something like a PSAudio Direct Stream DAC was directly driving the amp and it's volume control was up full? I presume that the volume was quite loud when this happened? If not, we have been working on the protection circuitry to modify i't sensitivities and false triggering.
With input sensitivity of the amp (1.2V) below maximum output voltage of most source component (2V), wouldn’t you expect the amp to trip unity gain? At unity gain on the preamp, you would feed the BHK amp 2V (assuming a 0dB source signal), correct?
BHK saidWhat I mean is unity gain on my pre amp is volume at 72, the pre amp adding no additional gain. The music was peaking in the mid 90 dB range, and the amp would go into protection mode (the PSA logo flashing rapidly, I assume that is what this means). I figure my speakers being 93 dB efficient that would mean the BHK is pushing out just a few watts. So I do not understand why it was shutting down. Yes, it was loud, but not crazy loud, and my similarly powered EDGE never had this issue.woot said I have the balance issue resolved- it is my pre amp. Changing inputs solved that problem. The BHK does go into protection mode at unity gain however, driving 93 dB speakers.BHK Here: It is very confusing what you say about the protection circuitry being tripped at "unity gain". What you probably mean is that your preamp is set to a volume setting that provides unity in/out gain? Or maybe you don't have a preamp and something like a PSAudio Direct Stream DAC was directly driving the amp and it's volume control was up full? I presume that the volume was quite loud when this happened? If not, we have been working on the protection circuitry to modify i't sensitivities and false triggering.
BHK - Thanks for your time reading and responding! Very cool! Please don’t get me wrong, I love the amp!
What is the loudest you played your speakers driven by the EDGE amp? The DS outputs 1.5V, and input sensitivity of the BHK is 1.2V, so at unity gain setting on the preamp, you would be playing the BHK at maximum gain (30.5dB). I would expect your highly sensitive speakers to play much louder than mid 90s at these settings.
I never measured it b4. but certainly louder that what tripped the BHK. BHK did state “we have been working on the protection circuitry to modify i’t sensitivities and false triggering” so I’m thinking this is my issue, and it will be fixed.
Alekz said Did anybody else notice any changes in the sound between 200 and 400 hours?What? Still nobody?
Yarrggghh… These binding posts is a catastrophe… One of them has the nut stuck, and two are loosely moving with no possibility to tighten the cables. I had to put thick a rubber pad between the contacts to prevent accidental short-circuiting (the posts are placed way too close to each other).
I think I will have to open the cover and re-tighten them from the inside. Not something I would like or expect to do…
This sounds very frustrating.
Is anyone else having similar or related issues?
woot said I never measured it b4. but certainly louder that what tripped the BHK. BHK did state "we have been working on the protection circuitry to modify i't sensitivities and false triggering" so I'm thinking this is my issue, and it will be fixed.If you are having premature triggering (sounds like a medical issue) please contact Scott or myself via email. We do have a fix.