As the title says, I am considering the potential purchase of a PS Audio BHK 250 stereo amp. It would be intended for use with a pair of Magnepan 3.7i’s. As many of you may know, these speakers present a challenging load, being rated at 4 ohms, and occasionally dropping to 2. I would greatly appreciate it if someone from the technical side of things at PS Audio could comment on whether the amplifier in question would effectively match with this need. Given the relative newness of the amplifier, and shortage of reviews, I’ve not seen any commentary that would clarify this. Thank you for any assistance.
I can drive my Shahinian Obelisks and/or Diapasons with my BHK 250 - a very demanding load. With many super-tweeters working around 2 ohms can give most amplifiers a severe dose of the vapors - but it’s bread and butter to the BHK250. I also use the wonderful BHK300’s and BHK preamp… ‘Truly excellent amplifiers’. I also have Constellation and Lamm mono block amplifiers and matching preamplifiers; they are all excellent and worthy in their own right but the BHK range of amplifiers are musically the best amplifiers I have ever used/owned… Never having used your model of speakers I can’t answer your question but, as I said, Shahinian speakers are a very demanding speaker and it takes a special amplifier to get the very best out of them … BHK amplifiers are the best amplifiers I have owned…
While the Magnepan 3.7i speakers are a four ohm nominal impedance and drop below that at certain frequencies, they are almost a purely resistive load with a very low reactive component. So while they do like an amp with sufficient current to adequately drive them, they don’t pose a particularly difficult load as some other speaker designs with complex crossovers can present. Sorry that I don’t have any first hand experience with the BHK amp driving them but I wouldn’t expect them to have any problem doing so with aplomb!
Slapshot said
As the title says, I am considering the potential purchase of a PS Audio BHK 250 stereo amp. It would be intended for use with a pair of Magnepan 3.7i's. As many of you may know, these speakers present a challenging load, being rated at 4 ohms, and occasionally dropping to 2. I would greatly appreciate it if someone from the technical side of things at PS Audio could comment on whether the amplifier in question would effectively match with this need. Given the relative newness of the amplifier, and shortage of reviews, I've not seen any commentary that would clarify this. Thank you for any assistance.
JC
Absolutely! In fact, it was those very speakers I spent a great deal of time with. The BHK will be super happy with that load and sounding amazing!!
Paul, I have BHK 300’s and have been on the fence between the Magnepan 3.7i and the 20.7. Paul any thoughts? Why did you not have the large maggies in the old music room pre IRS?
I have never owned the larger ones. At the time I was more interested in building a hybrid. If you remember, I had the original Tympani 1 bass panels James Bongiorno had stashed away in his garage before his passing and a pair of ML Descent subwoofers too.
Maggies are great but they are not full range.
I have 2 systems setup in our home, one with a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-VIIIA speakers and the other a pair of the earlier LFT-IV. Both setups use BHK-250 amps. I am VERY happy with the sonics I’m getting and they are the best amps I’ve used (though none of my previous amps were in the same strata).
I’ve owned a pair of the earlier MG-3’s and have some experience with the MG-20’s from a nearby audio shop from when I lived in Minneapolis. I love my ET speakers and believe they are a very good not-too-expensive compromise between the delicacy of electrostatics (I’ve owned 3 pair of Acoustats and the original ML CLS’s) and and the directness and dynamics of the planar magnetics (along with MG-3’s, I also have had MG-Is, MG-IIs, and SMGs in my system along with the fairly rare ET LFT-VIs). My understanding is that the MG-20 series has push-pull main panels similar to the ET speakers, which would be a good upgrade over the panels I remember from the MG-3s. BUT the glory of both of them and the thing they have over any speaker with which I’ve lived is that ribbon tweeter, which is just the best I’ve heard outside of the super-exotic plasma tweeters.
So my advice is go with the 20’s, your BHK-300’s deserve the best (unless you can stretch your budget to the MG-30.7’s!).
I’m guessing you must have meant this for someone else. I’m not involved in any audio conversation associated with the 20.7’s, although I am a definite admirer of those speakers. I simply don’t have the home for it.
I ordered 3.7i, but the dealer offered me a full trade in value for a year if I decide to order 20.7’s within a year. So I would lose not money on the 3.7i’s. That’s a great deal.