Very musical sound, lots of power, warm sound.

Warm sound

I purchased this unit on a whim seeing a closeout floor model. I also bought the PT-3 Preamp and set them up with a Pioneer DVD player as transport and a MSB Link DAC III as the DAC with Magnepan MMG speakers. I really needed the power and the B&K has it (185 w at 4 ohms). I immediately did a comparison to my Pioneer integrated and it blew it away. In additoion, my listening room also has an electronic piano in it and I had my wife compare some test CD piano notes to the real thing. She has a very musical ear and after proper sound level setting, she only got the piano right 5 out of 10 times. I did it again with the Pioneer and she was 10 out of 10. Does this mean anything? No, but she indicated she really liked the B&K better. Me too.

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Pioneer Elite Integrated, Sony ES Receiver

Plenty of clean power, very musical sound, spacious soundstage, compact enough to fit in smaller cabinet, nice (simple!) styling.

Just a little too "smooth" -- omits some of the finest detail, but no big deal. Questionable quality control.

I have used this amp for about a month, after comparing it with the Adcom unit mentioned above. I am quite pleased with the purchase at this point, but would urge potential buyers to make sure they have a good return policy available to them.

The rest of the system is as follows:
Sony CDP-CA8ES CD player
B&K PT-3 preamp/tuner
Monster interconnects and speaker wires
Infinity Kappa 7.1 speakers (with the sadly missed EMIT tweeters)

I am a violinist and primarily listen to classical music, although I have played some jazz and rock through the unit. My experience is that classical music, especially string chamber music, represents a much more difficult test for equipment, so I did my comparisons with a selection of different classical genres.

My first unit was a floor model from Magnolia Hi-Fi. I got it home and it sounded beautiful -- until it had gotten warm, about an hour in. At that point the right channel began buzzing heavily, even at very low levels. It sounded like I had blown a tweeter, but a quick swap of the speakers disproved that theory. Extensive troubleshooting revealed the problem to be in the amp.

To make a very long story short, no one at Magnolia or B&K was able to find (or even reproduce) the problem, and they ended up replacing my unit with a new ST2140 (identical in all but name), which works as advertised.

The B&K easily won the comparison with the Adcom. The B&K sounds much more pleasant and smooth, without sacrificing too much detail. The Adcom unit sounded more like my old Sony ES receiver with more power: very fussy and overwrought highs that add more pain than musical information. Yes, you can hear the bow hit the stand with the B&K. With the Adcom (and my old Sony) such a thing turns into a Sound Reproduction Event, rather than the passing little bit of noise that it is.

Despite the Adcom unit's considerably greater size and weight, I was able to push both amplifiers to similar levels without distortion. Either one will easily offend my neighbors, even through the inefficient Infinitys, and both can provide "realistic" levels for chamber music. But the B&K just sounds nicer, since the details are realistic and not fussy.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom GFA-565II, Sony STR-GX800ES and STR-G1ES receivers

I have this amplifier in my system with a B&K PT-3 pre-amp and Vienna Acoustic Mozart speakers. The sound is wonderful...crisp,true,not harsh. i have noticed no clipping of the sound in my listening (Classical,Rock,Jazz,Blues)
I am very happy with my purchase. I thought it was good value for the money.

Value, power, looks, bass response

Maybe a little harsh on the highs at extremely loud volumes

I picked up this amp about three months ago for $610 (US)to push my Paradigm Monitor 9's and could not be happier. I compared it to similar NAD, Parasound, Rotel and Marantz products and found that only the Rotel could keep up in its price range. I found that the B&K's ability to handle bass was astonishing. Highs sound great, except at much louder levels, when they seem to outweigh the bass. I must say that this amp brings a new clarity to my speakers that I never knew existed. Highly doubt that you can beat this amp with this much clean power for the same $700.
Looks pretty damn cool too.
CJ

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first separate amplifier

clean,no amp sounds, good bounce in bass,nice overall sound

not exotic enough for my taste. .. At least I admit it..

It's somtimes hard to say what's making things sound good I have this amp with the pt3 preamp and nordost red dawn interconnects , speaker cable. through stratus bronze and an ah!tube cdp the available clean power from the 1400-11 never wares my ears out. Nice and musical is the way I like it and that's what the B&K delivers.

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marantz 15