Very good sounding unit -- clear, precise, and detail. It is the best value in the price range. In addition, it can compete w/ $5000 pre-amp.

This is very great pre-amp for H/T and stereo. It gives you the hi-fi sound quality and complete H/T features. It is not like the other pre-amp you need to trade-off on either features or sound quality for the $2000 pre-amp. It just good enough to beat all the pre-amp in the market for best value.
If you like the opening sound stage, please try combine it w/ Sunfire Cinema Grand Amp. They just sound incredible. Do not buy any cheaper to suffer sound quality and/or great features, or spend more for nothing but your great money. Listen and audit them to understand what I just mentioned.

Detail, clean, user-friendly, well-builded, and best value for every thing. It is all you need to know -- super high quality at affordable low price. No other unit can beat it. It class its own.

Detail, detail, detail. This piece is clinical. You won't find enriched euphonia of EAD, roll-off of tubes, or grit of Lexicon DC-1. I couldn't believe the sound resolution this preamp painted. This piece is dynamic and unforgiving. If you have some older, poor recordings, the Ref20 is unmerciful in revealing their flaws. It tended to lean toward the bright side (as is typical of accuracy) and is best matched with more neutral to warm speakers. Your listening room shouldn't be too "live." It lacks the snob appeal of the Proceeds, Lexicons, etc. So, it can be had for an unreal price (just over $2K where I audtitioned it). The DTD and DD are the best I've heard yet. The stereo mode is excellent, too. Not Levinson, but unsurpassed at this price. Huge soundstage with very good image focus. A bit bright for some. I haven't finalized my decision, but this pre/pro is at the top of my list, now. HIGHLY recommended!!!

SORRY, BUT I HEARD THIS PRE-AMP AND THE MOST IT DESERVES IS TWO STARS

Let me start by saying I have lived with lots of different brands from being in the Industry a while back. I consider myself somewhat unhappy about everything I listen to, because I'm one of the fools who believe there is audio and HT nirvana out there somewhere. I bought a Yamaha DSP-A1 4 months ago because all the good press and comments the unit was getting. I must say after trying every possible speaker placement and mid-fi amps (adcom, NAD, B&K)I was not able to make it sound any better than my 1992 model Sony
TAE200ESD... DD, DTS not withstanding. Yamaha seems to have the same UN-involving sound from every thing I have bought from them. So I traded in the Yamaha for a B&K REF 20 pre-amp and I was blown away by the difference in the quality of the sound from the pre-amp and in HT modes. The Motorola chip they uses is fantastic, which I believe it the same HT processor Proceed uses in there AVP and PDSD units. My only gripe with B&K is they should FIRE AND I MEAN BOOT/NO SERVERENCE PACKAGE the person who is in charge of Quality Control.
The Pre-amp had I few buttons on the front pushed in behind the front plate of the unit and the AV5000 amp was missing a power cable and a warranty card. I have to respect the engineers of this unit and give it 5 stars, it's
close to the best buy you can make for about 2,500, but I'm still debating if I should upgrade to a Proceed PAV/PDSD.
Any comments welcome:
Chess

I do not want to start a war by comparing this product with The Proceed AVP that I actually bought as an upgrade to my B&K 3090 but returned it a 6 weeks of use for B&K Ref 20. B&K Ref 20 is an outstanding preamplifier/processor with Dolby Digital and DTS, the sound quality is excellent. Great soundstage, good midrange and excellent bass reproduction.
This is another long-term investment for my home theater. I have seen some postings displaying some concerns about this product. I am sold on B&K products, I have 4 amps made by B&K although I could afford to spend more but B&K gives me a great bang for my bucks. The Ref 20 is very dynamic in music and sound track reproduction and it is every thing I needed in a preamp. The AVP3090 was good but Ref 20 is great. If you are looking for a good and reasonably priced product check out this monstrous preamp. It’s not the Proceed AVP, but I am pleased with this baby and the money it saved me. I will give B&K Ref 20 5 Star.

just got my ref20 2 days ago- after several hours had everything up and running- programmed remote to work my cd,dvd,c-band,dss,vcr and tv--- all different brands but no problem
very easy to set up various modes-
wondering if anyone has figured out how to turn on dd compression- it mentions it in the owner's manual but dosn't say how to do it -- in the section describing dts lock.

overall excellent, love the upgrade policy

my system:vandersteen 2c,vcc1,v2w sub, vsm-1 surround
carver av705x
pioneer dvd414

(Repeat post in the AVR202 section)For all of you flipping through this section and the AVR202 trying to find out if the B&K is a good peice because of quality and design issues read-on.
The AVR202 and the REF20 have NO quality or design issues since Q4 of 98.
B&K knows that some design and quality issues were experienced but were addressed. The reasons for this (in my opinion) is two fold. 1st, they got pressured to release the product before proper Beta testing was done. They were late out of design and had a HUGE backlog of sold product. The smartest business thing to do is SLOWLY release a few units per week to send them out in the field and get reports back as to how things are doing. This was done by Sunfire and yes, bugs were found and fixed quietly. Obviously B&K did not anticipate these issues. Denon and Yamaha, for example never promise dates of delivery and if they miss them the don't feel the pressure. If problems are found though they don't admit them (from my experience).
The 2nd reason quality problems were experienced by B&K was a 4X EXPLOSION in business. A lot of growing pains were realized having to hire new employees to assemble etc in Q4 of 99.
Some of the major concerns were addressed including running too hot (New top covers with more vents, sticking buttons (new squishy rubber buttons), Hum in some units (internal grounding rerouting), and locks-up (new back-up and restore feature).
I have gotten over 40 REF20's and AVR202 since December or 98. I tried to get product before then but the backlog was very heavy and I did not get any units because of this. From my experience, I have had 3 problems out of 40. 2 bad LCD portions in the remote and a misaligned headphone jack. Two people also said they had problems but upon return, they checked out fine. Turned out they did not know how to use it or made it up to get it returned.
I am not meaning this to sound like a flag-waving B&K dealer but I truely have not experienced all of these problems. I would refuse to sell this product if I had a lot of problems. I cannot afford the hastle of carrying bad product! In fact, I refuse to sell most of the Marantz line because of all the quality problems that I have experienced (25% plus returns or serviced!!) Rest assured B&K is the best designed (and sounding) receiver on the market (I have heard them all).
If you decide to buy a Japanese preamp (or receiver) versus an open architecture like the B&K. You will be garanteeing quick obsolences since they do not have an upgrade policy. B&K is working on Component video, 24/96 AS WELL AS 48/192, variable crossovers, equalization, and new Dolby standards. If you go with the Japanees or other NON-upgradeable receivers and preamps, you will be on the market selling your preamp or receiver again and again. This is another reason I am pro-B&K. Hopefully this has helped. If you want more info feel free to call my at 612-308-7736. I will be happy to guarantee you will not have problems (if you do not have local dealer support)
Steve of Sound Video in MN
Authorized Lines:
ATI, Acurus, Aerial Acoustics, Aragon, B&K, Bryston, Class'e, Cinepro, DynAudio, EAD (Enlightend Audio Designs), Energy (Local Only), Gallo Acoustics, Gershman Acoustics (Beautiful Sounding and looking speakers), Innersound (ElectroStatic), Lexicon (Local Only), Marantz (Local Only), M&K, Monitor Audio, NHT, Panamax, Parasound, Pioneer (Not Elite), Plinius, Sherwood NewCastle, Toshiba, Theta Digital (local or I need to install), & Velodyne.

I purchased a B&K Ref 20 in mid-January '99 and I have not had a single problem with it. Since this unit is the center of my whole system, I've had it in almost constant use since I got it and it's never let me down. I also purchased a B&K AV6000 amp which sounded/worked great, but which had an annoying hum in it, which was very disappointing. I exchanged it twice and returned it to B&K once and they were not able to fix it to my satisfaction. To everyone's credit, B&K was as helpful and as responsive as they could be, and the dealer gave me a full refund on it, so I really can't complain too much.
Anyway, I don't think you could ask for a better processor than the Ref 20 for the money. It is very neutral sounding, which is the way a pre-amp should be, and the signal quality the unit passes is superb. For example, a video signal from my DVD player to my TV looks identical to the signal routed from the DVD player, thru the Ref 20, then to the TV. The Ref 20 allows a huge number of inputs, all with composite video AND S-video. There are no audio-only inputs, and no phono inputs. There are also 5 or so digital coax and fiber optic connections as well. The only thing missing is component video ins/outs. The Ref 20 also has 4 12V control out jacks to allow controlling external components, and can be programmed to work in dozens of different ways. I set mine up to turn my amps on/off when the Ref 20 turns on/off, and to shut the amps off if I select the "headphone" audio mode. If you are looking for goofy DSP modes to screw up your sound, look elsewhere. The Ref 20 has about 8 or so audio modes plus a headphone mode, all of which are basically just different ways of routing audio to various speakers. The unit also has dual zone capability, although the second zone cannot get digital signals. One of my favorite features is what B&K calls "plug & play" signal detection. When the unit is in surround mode, it auto-detects the bitstream and sets the unit for Dolby Digital, DTS, ProLogic, analog, or whatever mode is required. Like most other features, this can be turned off if you want. The Ref 20 has 8 speaker outputs, including 2 center outs and 2 sub outs. It's also upgradable, so when new standards come out (like DD 6.1, or SACD, etc.), you're not stuck with a $2500 boat anchor.

The unit is plain in appearance, but I've never known appearance to benefit audio/video quality. The on-screen menus are comprehensive and complete, and everything can be accessed via the remote or the front panel. The speaker set up and calibration screens are straight-forward and simple, and will even allow you to set up your subwoofer in "Ultra" mode. This passes all 80Hz and below signals from all channels to your sub, even when in 2-channel stereo mode, so if you want some extra bass, you got it. The only possible complaint someone could have is the 80Hz crossover frequency is not adjustable. It's the most recommended frequency though, and works perfect for me, so I don't have any problem with it. You can also configure the unit to work in "direct" mode, so that if you have a component you feel has better DACs, then you can use those instead of the Ref 20's DACs.

The remote has got to be the best ever. Easy to use, and it can run everything you own very easily. Every button can be programmed 8 different ways, including the 4 macro buttons. You can easily program the remote to turn on and off everything in your system with one button push. You can also create "shortcuts" that allow you to save the source, mode, and volume settings. For example, you can program "1" on the keypad to select your CD player, set the volume to -40dB, and put the unit in stereo mode, all in one shot. You can have up to 20 different shortcuts.

System:
B&K Reference 20 preprocessor/pre-amp
2 Parasound HCA-2003A amps (220Wx3)
Sony DVP-C600D DVD player
A stack of misc. Sony VHS/S-VHS VCRs
Paradigm Reference Studio 100 fronts
2 Paradigm Reference Studio CC centers (aka CC-450)
Paradigm Reference Studio ADP rears (aka ADP-450)
Paradigm Reference Servo-15 sub
Monster M-1500/M-1000 interconnects
Monster 12ga speaker wire (bi-wired)