Tom Martin review the PS Audio BHK 600 Power Amplifiers, details its brutish power power supply, its vacuum tube rectification stage, and relays some of the history behind the designer, the late Bascom H. King.
00:00-05:51 Specs
05:51-15:04 History, Design, Bascom H. King
15:04-18:11 First Thoughts on Sound
18:11-21:32 Reference Equipment and Tracks
21:32- Pros, Cons, and Further Thoughts
About Tom Martin:
Tom is a long-time audiophile. He began his reviewing career after acquiring the The Absolute Sound magazine in 1997 and then hi-fi+ magazine in 2002. He has worked closely with Harry Pearson and Robert Harley at TAS and with Roy Gregory and Alan Sircom at hi-fi+. Since Tom and his teams expanded the TAS and Plus platforms in the digital domain, he has served as Chief Content Officer.
What Is The Absolute Sound?
The Absolute Sound magazine has been a leading publication in high-end audio since 1972. Since the early 2000s, The Absolute Sound has expanded to include web, newsletter, digital magazine, social media, YouTube and Substack platforms. The Absolute Sound platforms have a global audience of over 500,000 audiophiles.
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Please show more videos about speakers and complete systems
Thanks (:
Big toys for rich boys !
I can not afford this amount of money , but if i could , i would go for something with large VUmeters, because i love cherries on my cakes( Greek proverb)
Tom without trying to sound like a broken record, this channel brings so much value to our hobby it's staggering. Guys keep in mind that even if you don't have the ability to own these amplifiers, their are what I would call ah-ha moments that can help us learn, and be better equipped in making purchasing decisions down the road.
Interesting review. Excellent!
You say it's dynamic, no errors and relaxed, does it color the sound or stream it faithfully?
Nicely reviewed Tom. You were recently at my local audio dealer and long time friends over at Safe and Sound! I think you were pleasantly surprised by such a fine store presentation in a small town.
I am very much in the orchestral camp, and work for a pipe organ company (coming up on 35 years), and we are employed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra maintaining the 1940 Skinner organ at Tanglewood during the summer concert season..
In a few words, pipe organs and symphonic orchestras at full tilt have NO distortion since they are all acoustic. My only pet peeve with recordings of these instruments/ensembles is the wide spread use of multi channel/mono microphones all over the venue. Our friends over at PS Audio know me pretty well when it comes to this matter.😉(I have helped in 'coaching' Octave Records with their first ever, and recent recording of the pipe organ).
Point is, VERY FEW and far between, that recording companies take the time and EXPENSE to record in TRUE STEREO where you can say 'stereo image', that being produced by ONLY 2 channels.
Soundstage (as we know) is electronically placed signals by the engineer at a mixing desk. Thus turning a fine concert hall acoustic into a big studio. 😑
And no, the Decca tree is not true stereo, and it's common placement over the music director's head is NOT where perhaps you, or certainly I would want to hear a live orchestral performance.
Composers of orchestral compositions arrange the musicians according to their dynamic range on stage, and are made to work these dynamics with a solo violin or piano at the front of a large ensemble. How many times have we heard recordings where a solo instrument is 'augmented' by loud respiratory noises from the performer?, which to me, can be a total distraction and usually due to a single solo hot spot mic close to that instrument.
I believe that the audience perspective recording with only two channels would really make our music systems at home really shine, and certainly the BHK amps, would portray this wonderfully.
Thanks your thoughts, and for reading my long 'side bar' comment.🙂
An interesting review. Regarding dynamic range – as I recall all things being equal at a given volume level you need a doubling of power to increase the perceived volume by 3db. So if 1 watt produces 85db, 2 watts should produce 88db, 4 watts 91db, 8 watts 94db and so on. Hence Tom's comments about needing about 1000 watts to reproduce 110db if you start out with 1 watt reproducing 80db. Hope this helps.
As a follow up how about a review of the BHK 300. It would be interesting to see what sacrificed sound wise at half the price.
Does the amp case have to be so heavy and built like a tank?
For best class D: tiny, weightless, no heat. For best of class AB, bigger, heavier, is better. Need a 20 amp breaker and air conditioning for maximum comfort. Purchase price, equivalent.
Very nice review…PS Audio has now moved into the upper crest of high end audio… I have very low output Dynaudio C5s speakers and already own a world class … big power amp developed by David Belles… 350 watts into 8 ohms etc… I point that was not addressed is damping factors…. Belles amp has very high damping factors and that does impact bass control and recovery…
Congrats to PSAudio… Ido use their power plant and power cables ..
Lamm M1.2 Reference
Enjoying the reviews.
Another great review. You have now reviewed several PS Audio products – have you ever considered reviewing a complete PS Audio system – from DS ii dac, pre, power and speakers? I think it would be fascinating to hear a review of a full single manufacturer system. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone carry out such a review.
Their is no marketplace for a USA 2 channel Hi Fi Audio other than the ultra High End Audiophile ecosystem.
I think.. both output transistors types are push/push, but one side's phase is flipped, creating – and +.
How does a pair of BHK 600 amps sound as compared to a pair of really good all tube amps like a VAC? I can imagine the dynamic slam of the BHK 600 being more powerful than the all triode amp. But does the triode further excel at low level information? I currently enjoy 110W triode monos driving alnico open baffles.
I think Paul and Bascom describe the great match of a tube input stage and a solid state power stage as being optimal. I can imagine similar magic coming from triode input driving a SOTA class D power module.
Strange ironic timing. You were talking about using two n channel output stages instead of fully complementary n/p stages as are typical. It rattled the cob webs and I was remembering how when I was doing travelling amp clinics at audio retail locations in the '70's I scoped Yamaha's using quasi-complemnetary output stages. Problem was they did not even reproduce both halfs of the sinewave very well. And then you mentioned Yamaha!
Bascom is dead, but his name is the gift that keeps on giving, like Colonel Sanders..
Does anyone know what the music in the review is? I want it.
This review is shockingly bad. There is barely any comparisons or description of the sound quality.
Beautifully done review. I have the PS Audio S-300 amp in the strata line and can say that is a wonderful product as well although not in the same class as the BHK.
I had BHK 300 monos with Magnepan 3.6 and later Rockport speakers. The BHKs were too soft for my taste and I sold them. But I kept the PS Audio Dirext Stream. Interesting to hear Tom comment on this BHK’s softness.
THE ABSOLUTE SOUND youtube channel is the 'Chicago soft jazz club/bar' audio review channel. Your father 1st took you there years n' years ago; time & circumstance takes you away on occasion – BUT, given a free evening, whether alone or with friends, it's simply the best place to put some quality time in!
PS Audio is a solid high quality manufacturer? You can't be serious! Read the owner forums and you'll see how many problems all their products have, going back years and years. PS Audio even admit to selling stuff they know doesn't work properly!
Well done video. Incredible mono block.
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day*in and day*out." *Robert Collier
I doubt there are any recordings out there that reproduce the dynamic range of a full orchestra even if the technology allows it. All of them are compressed and limited to some degree to make them listenable in spaces with at least 40db of noise floor. I'm talking about good recordings not 'loudness wars' recordings of popular music.
Thank you for a great review
Tubes actually last a lot longer than people think if they are good quality and properly biased (This needs to be checked no less often than every 3 months or so at minimum.) There is no finite number, but a lot longer than 2 years. I think we as "tinkerers" just need something to "fix". 😀
Actually test your tubes before replacing them and you'll be surprised how often they are perfectly fine. It's probably more critical that you have a sonically good set of tubes and you want to make sure they are well matched. Don't buy tubes from bargain suppliers. BUT don't just buy them because they have an audiophile/designer name on them and are expensive. NONE of these audio companies actually make tubes. They just get their brand put on them. They might insist on certain tighter tolerances. But not always.