Here is THE BEST Main Pre EVER !! and I have owned many including the BHK.
Good Luck finding one though
ACOUSTIC IMAGERY JAY-SHO balanced pre-amp NEW PRICE [Expired]
no longer for sale
A wonderful, one-owner balanced preamp. Comes with Pelican shipping case. The matching mono-blocks are also for sale. Note: power cord not needed.
From 10audio:
At the heart of the non-active Jay-Sho are autoformers made especially for Acoustic Imagery with very short signal paths. The internal wiring is Mundorf solid silver wire. The case is machined from heavy, solid billet aluminum.
The Levinson No. 52 preamplifier, list $30,000, is a superb component and a worthy upgrade to the already outstanding Levinson No. 326S. The phono stage in the No. 52 is magnificent. The line stage in the No. 52 is cleaner, less electronic sounding with purer tones and better resolution than the 326S. These probably result from less interaction with the power supply, which is housed in a separate box, in addition to new and improved active circuitry.
The Jay-Sho is better. Imagine the sonic improvement going from the all-in-one box of the No. 326S to the two-box No. 52 with separate power supply. The difference is not trivial or small. Now imagine the sonic improvement going from a superbly engineered power supply to nopower supply, which enables a totally passive signal path. This removes any trace of the presence of additional active electronics between you and your music.
This pervasive sense of lifelike purity combined with seemingly limitless resolution is quickly addicting.
Thatâs great, I never had a chance to hear them for an extended amount of time. When I was in the process of researching mains I was trying to get a pair of studio 2s but my dealer gave me a pretty good deal on some salon 2âs. I love the salons, wouldnât trade them for anything but Iâve always liked the slightly smaller footprint of the studios. The new Be series look even better.
It is normal. The BHK uses a very unusual volume control that actually changes the gain of the tubes. There can be some audible clicking though it should be very slight.
I had the bhk300 with Kefs blade 2. Just warm to the touch. And dead quiet on the speakers, no matter RCA or XLR. You should definitely give support a call.
Put my bent audio tap-x pre amp back in today, dead quiet, can only hear anything with ear up to speaker. The really loud hum/hiss I was getting from left channel is gone. Used same interconnects and everything. So Iâm thinking something wrong with preamp.
Monoblock still overheating as well.
Still intend to call psaudio tomorrow, just updating in case others have any more suggestions.
Received new amps and pre this weekend. All my previous issues are thankfully gone.
There however is still one problem that is a bit bothersome. From my listening position about 8-9â away I can easily make out speaker hiss/whitenoise without music playing.
If I mute the preamp or have preamp off I need to get within a foot to hear anything. Put in a different preamp and itâs dead quiet.
I donât think the preamp is defective, but I also donât think it is normal to be able to hear this noise from the listening position.
Is this a tube issue? Both channels are making about the same noise.
Itâs a bit frustrating to have this sort of issue with a preamp of this cost.
Anybody have suggestions? I no longer have spare 12au7 tubes to test. I have two pairs of 6414âs, that I think can be used in place of 12au7âs. Maybe I should try those if they are compatible. Would I run them at 4 or 5ma?
6414 is a 12AT7 equivalent so too much gain for that tube to be used as a substitute and you already have a gain issue to start with. There is one trouble shooting thing to try and verify that is a gain issue and not something else. If you have a set of SE cables laying around then substitute them for the XLR cables between the preamp and the amps. This will likely increase the level of the clicking from the volume control but it will lower the gain by 10 db and eliminate the tube rush you are hearing from your seating position. There are multiple devices sold to lower gain from balanced outputs at places like Guitar Land and Musicians Friend. Many less than $100 and you can then go back to XLR cables.
With just the amps on I can hear the noise from about 2â, as soon as the preamp clicks on it just gets loud and easily audible from my listening position 8-9â away.
I did open it up and make sure the tubes are seated. Pins look cleaned and are pushed in all the way
If this is the second preamp with the second set of tubes then changing them again is not going to solve your issue unless PSA has a complete bad batch. With SE cables the preamp only has 3 db of gain to your passives 0 db so the difference shouldnât be that great. The speakers I used with the BHK preamp and the 250 amp were all over 90 db and I always had to get within a foot or two to hear anything using the Balanced outputs on the preamp. Is this completely new gear the second time or the same gear as the first delivery after being âtestedâ at the factory?
Just ran a pair of balanced cables from preamp to amps. This is all without any inputs connected since that doesnât seem to make a difference.
With the balanced cables itâs slightly better, but can easily hear from 4-5â away.
One thing I noticed with balanced cables, and iâll have to test with single ended, the static/hiss/whitenoise from the right speakers is uniform and consistent, on the left itâs kind of all over and fluttery
Are any of the three power cables involved too close to the ICâs? If your issue was purely too much gain then the tube rush noise should have increased with four times as much gain. The inconsistent noise on the left is likely the tube and may or may not change after it is fully heated.
JA measured the Revel Ultima Studio 2 at 89 db sensitivity so relatively normal for a speaker of that type. The noise from the combo of the BHK preamp and 300 amps with the volume all the way down should require you to get within a foot to hear it under normal circumstances using the XLR inputs and ear up to the tweeter with the SE inputs so gain isnât the issue and the noise is coming from somewhere else and the BHK preamp is making it worse if your other preamp eliminates it. With no preamp at all are the amps quiet?
Well to start, volume level on the preamp doesnât change loudness of the noise, itâs the same no matter the volume level.
With the preamp disconnected and nothing other than just the amplifiers hooked up to the speakers, the noise is minimal, I can only hear it up to 1.5-2â away.
If I add a different preamp, nothing changes, noise is the same just like having only the amps hooked up. As soon as the bhk pre goes in, noise goes up significantly.
I just read your post againâŚ
So now Iâm understanding it may not actually be a preamp issueâŚ?
If I can hear noise from 1-2â away with just the amps hooked up, the gain from the bhk preamp is simply amplifying that??
That may explain why my other preamp doesnât increase the noise when I swap it in, it is fully passive so I believe there is no gain. With that preamp all I hear is the noise the monoblocks add, which like I mentioned I can hear pretty easily from 1.5-2â away.
I have an older cambridge audio integrated amp that I believe has outputs so I can run it just as a pre. I donât know what the gain of it is but tomorrow after work I will add it to the mix and see if it increases the noise.
Yes, the fact that your other preamp is a 0 db gain passive does explain why with it you are getting only the residual noise from the tubed input stage of the 300âs and your noise level would be higher than mine as you have four tubes to my two. Also yes the gain of the BHK is amplifying that residual noise but it also adds itâs own noise which is greater with the 6 and seven volt tubes than with the 12AU7âs. I have owned a fair number of tube preamps in my almost 50 years and though it sounds great when the music is playing it does add more noise on itâs own that any other one I have owned and is also the pickiest about tube selection. In the end you will need to decide if that noise is something you can live with. There are a world of other options if you canât just depends on what features you want or need. Sometimes once you hear it it is hard to un-hear.
I just donât think hearing that hiss/noise from the listening position is normal or practical. Many others here with the same gear say they need to put their ears up to the speakers to hear anything.
Paul even covers speaker noise in one of his videos and says some is normal but that you shouldnât hear it from where you sit. He then proceeds to get up and say he needs to put his ear right up to the speaker to hear anything, and it looks like it is all BHK gear they are running in their listening room.
Does this come down to tube selection?
If so, why would they put tubes that are this noisy in from the factory?
I really feel like different tubes may help a little but not to the point that it would diminish the sound to the point where I cannot hear it from where I sit.
My previous amp was a full tubed integrated and it wasnât even close to this noisy without music playing.
I really am troubled by the noise you are hearing. My speakers are 93db per watt sensitive and with 12 volt tubes the BHK preamp noise is very low and requires close proximity to the speakers to hear. With 6 volt tubes the noise is definitely more prominent. You should discuss this with customer service.
