There was almost an entire generation which sat on plastic covered sofas and chairs. I suspect it was part of living through the depression, especially as a child.
I leave the plastic on as the equipment is in a rack where one cannot see the tops, and the PWT is resting on the DS which, in turn, is on a PowerBase. Otherwise I agree; take the plastic off and enjoy it.
Paul McGowan said You can actually treat the finish as you would a car. Rubbing compound, car polish, wax, all work perfectly on the top cover.Thanks, Paul. That is useful to know.
I would add that for resale value (we don’t sell, do we?) many buyers are put off by marks from footers, whether they be rubber or worse … I too leave the plastic on, but never lived on a plastic sofa (ewwww).
"Paul McGowan said
John did write us and let us know the testing caused the amplifier to blow a fuse and he was hesitant to just replace it and keep going.
This makes more sense.
Just replacing the fuse when you do not know what caused the failure is not necessarily wise. Given the nature of his “pre-conditioning” process I am a little surprised more amps do not truly fail under this stress test, although there have been plenty which have done more than just blow a fuse."
Unfortunately I did this once about 15 years ago: a fuse blew on my class D 400 watt amp (which will remain anonymous) so I replaced it. When I switched the amp on again there was a huge bang and both speakers’ drive units were destroyed!
John Atkinson was indeed wise not to replace the fuse without knowing why it blew.
BHK saidBryanEye said It bothers me because most modern amps seem to be stable at 4 ish ohms...to me that is an issue.....it should be for eveyone.I am glad you are satisfied with Paul's response, but remain astonished that you read the Measurements section to indicate the amp is unstable at 4 ohms or has any issue at 4 ohms. Neither Mr. Atkinson's measurements nor his comments lead to either conclusion. Note, for example, that the preconditioning he always performs was into 8 ohms. And is an attempt to break the amp; no amp will ever be subject to these operating conditions in use.Sorry , it came across the wrong way. The way I read it the first time it seemed that Mr. A was trying to tell us something without saying it. I should of let it sink in and post the next day.But it did start a conversation and clear the air.BryanBHK here. I think there is an unfortunate association with “possible unsuitability with 4 Ohm speakers” and the phrase unstable at or with 4 ohm loads. The amps are most assuredly not unstable with 4 Ohm speakers. The particular sample under warm up conditioning that showed up with some high frequency oscillation was not because of a 4 Ohm load but some other defective component in the circuit acting up. As been mentioned, PS Audio had devised a test that made that particular amp start to oscillate and does this test on all amps now. Not one has repeated the phenomena.
Some further clarification of the Mono 300’s current capacity vs. the Stereo 250. In the mono 300, the two separate stereo channel’s output stages are paralleled for twice the number of output devices and with all of the power supply capacity now available for one channel’s output. With the result of twice the current capacity of a 250 stereo channel.
No problem at all. Discussion is good. 
I’m a big fan of Micheal Fremer, his reviews, his analog setup clinics and in person, but I feel the review is flawed.
Failing to hear the Amps in balanced mode is akin to reviewing a Porsche on all season tires (instead of grippier summer tires) and then complaining that the car’s handling is off and lost grip at the apexes.
Sure one can get a decent sense of the product’s behavior but you’ll never know what that last few percent of performance was like.
I have listened to the PWD in a friends system, first single ended then balanced and it made a huge difference. Though I haven’t tried my BKH 300’s in unbalanced mode (due to cable and placement issues) I can’t possibly imagine there not being a benefit.
Even with the DS driven balanced but with the RCA’s connected to subs I found a loss of sound quality. At this level of performance, these (not so small) details matter to the final outcome.
And who is to say that the synergy between Michael’s Dartzeel preamp and the mating amp is the proper arena to judge a product against. Michael rightly used 2 different speakers to test the amps, and he should have used another source or pre (balanced) to give a fuller picture of what the amp’s true capabilities are.
As many of you have, I read though the multi year saga as Paul set out to build an amp that would compete at the highest levels, but at a price many could afford. The dream team he assembled, the groupthink and exchange of ideas has indeed created something very special, and I find the marketing hype to be appropriate.
While I haven’t heard my TAD based system powered by all the top amps, I have heard them on some very good, much more expensive and highly touted synergystic designs and the BHK is in another league. As the ancillary gear (DS and now amps) gets better, I feel like I am finally able to hear what the transducers are capable of… real sounding instruments.
I think eventually the virtues of this design will be accepted in common audiophile knowledge and I believe these amps will stand the test of time.
It’s difficult enough to create a product that performs at this level even as a cost no object design, but doing it at a real world pricing is a feat not to be dismissed so easily.
BHK,
Is there an audible difference between using unbalanced or unbalanced interconnects on the BHK Singnature 300s?
To my eras, yes - balanced are better.
I have used balanced interconnects whenever available. I just read your comment to the review, which make sense to me. Why would Fermer use unbalanced cables given his system?
Paul, BTW, pride in ownership is going to prevent anyone, consciously or not, from admitting their $100K+ amps sounds pretty much the same as the BHK 300s. I have heard most of them and there are too many confounding factors to make a definitive judgement. Let me say, however, that IMHO, I never come home, listen to the 300s and wish I had something else.
Mark A. Larsen said Why would Fermer use unbalanced cables given his system?Because his preamp only has SE outs.
As an aside, in my experience whether SE or unbalanced sounds better depends on the implementation of the particular piece of kit. There are magnificent sounding SE units, crummy balanced - and vice versa.
Well there is a balanced output, sort of (at least if that’s the preamp I am thinking of.) The fellow at darTZeel really doesn’t believe in balanced connections - for example he provides a BNC 50 Ohm connection from his preamp to his amp (which is a fine idea) but he does provide a balanced/unbalanced converter on his preamp, he just recommends against using it.
Thanks, Ted.
Mr. Fremer refers to the preamp as single-ended, “I ran them single-ended, from my single-ended reference preamp.” I didn’t look into it any further. I checked now, and the preamp has transformer balanced inputs and outputs, single-ended in between.
That’s true but only if you order it that way. Fremer’s hadn’t that option installed on the preamp. Ted’s right, the designer shies away from balanced having some phobia about it.
The mind boggles at what the cost of the already expensive DartZeel components would cost if they were true balanced circuits!
Mark A. Larsen said Paul, BTW, pride in ownership is going to prevent anyone, consciously or not, from admitting their $100K+ amps sounds pretty much the same as the BHK 300s. I have heard most of them and there are too many confounding factors to make a definitive judgement. Let me say, however, that IMHO, I never come home, listen to the 300s and wish I had something else.I had no such pride of ownership comparing the DS against the $30K MSB dac, and put the latter up for sale, and come out cash flow positive. I appreciate Fremer is in a different position though.
He is in a different position, though in all honesty, I do believe Michael is somewhat immune to this - he’s about as honest and forthright a reviewer as I have met. I was at the house when we installed the amps. From my perspective, BHK beat his amps hands down n the areas important to me - and clearly, after reading the review, he heard the same things - yet his other concerns outweighed those I didn’t even pay attention to. I think it was a fair review from his perspective. Not the review I would have written, but then…
I similarly have no ego tied up in buying audio equipment. I buy what sounds good. I am delighted when better is available for less.