I have added the BHK back into my system. I took Paul’s advise. I removed my entire system, removed everything. As this unit was part of a multi channel set up I had been using the BHK in HT bypass the entire time. This time I reversed the set up, I now use the BHK as my main preamp ( since I also almost never watch movies anymore ) and set up the room for music 1st and foremost. The Marantz can take a back seat!
Sweet sound! I am so happy with the sound. I have one question, are the RCA and XLR outputs separate inside the unit? I know they can be both used as say for main speakers and a sub. BUT I wonder if it’s possible for the firmware to be updated so that the outputs can be set up to have say one the outputs be shut off. Where this would be handle ( needed ) is in HT bypass mode. I’d rather use the XLR output of my Marantz AV8802 to control the subs for movies, but use the BHK to control subs with music listening. Right now I have to run two cables and unplug the RCA outputs on the BHK every time in bypass mode. Kinda a pain.
Huh. I thought I had answered this and now I see it is blank. Sorry about that, must be losing my mind.
Unfortunately, this cannot be done as the XLR and RCA are together. The volume control is before the output buffer and it would take an entire separate output buffer and volume control to accomplish this. If you’ve looked inside the preamp you’ll note how crowded it is.
Huh. I thought I had answered this and now I see it is blank. Sorry about that, must be losing my mind.
Unfortunately, this cannot be done as the XLR and RCA are together. The volume control is before the output buffer and it would take an entire separate output buffer and volume control to accomplish this. If you’ve looked inside the preamp you’ll note how crowded it is.
Paul, JL Audio seems to have something that will work well. It gets great reviews too. JL Audio CR-1.
I added a JL Audio CR-1 to the system. Amazing sub control. I am so so happy it did not take anything away from the amazing sound of the BHK preamp. It adds a great HT sub bypass as well so that my Marantz AV8802 can control the subs for movies only. Highly recommended.
A small BUMP for this topic, and a related question:
I’m considering adding a BHK preamp to my system, which is currently a DSJ DAC running XLR direct to active speakers (details in signature). I’m also looking at subs – and due to the active speakers I can’t use REL or other subs which take a speaker-level input (which I know Paul likes). So I’ll be looking at probably JL Audio subs, get the levels and xover close via their setup protocol (while running my monitors full-range) and maybe refine with Roon DSP.
SO, with a BHK preamp, is the recommended approach to run balanced to my amps (ie monitors) and run single-ended to one or two subs? I’m assuming this is in every case preferable to, for instance, running a single XLR out of the preamp and using a splitter or something between the monitors and sub(s)?
In the case of the BHKP, does running both RCA and XLR outputs at the same time ‘unbalance one side of the XLR’ as per subs into BHK amp?
due to the active speakers I can't use REL or other subs which take a speaker-level input (which I know Paul likes)
Actually, you could use a REL sub, as they have both line level and speaker level inputs. It's just that they recommend the speaker level input. My REL S/5 has both L/R RCAs plus a separate RCA for home theatre LFE. Plus it has separate level adjustments for the Stereo and LFE inputs.
Indeed, run the amps balanced from the BHK. If it is a BHK amplifier then a neat trick you can do is use a single ended RCA cable from the amp’s input as the Y connector to feed the sub.
I use XLRs between my BHK Pre, BHK Stereo 250 amp and 2 Paradigm Prestige 12" subs. Instead of tradition y-adapters, I had kimber build special inter-connect which combined 1M and 2.5M cables together for the both right and left channels. Many other companies offer similar custom options.
My PS Audio preamp has 1 set of RCA and XLR outputs. Wish it had 2 sets.
So I added a JL Audio CR-1. I tried something different. I use the XLR output from the preamp direct to my amps. Then I use the RCA output from preamp to the main cr-1 input. I then use RCA to subs with crossover controls. I wasn’t using the main speaker control crossovers anyway. This offers me the sub control, and gain need to equalize the DB loss for the RCA vs XLR. I get better air and treble from my PBS this way. So maybe this info would help others too someday.
