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Maybe it is because I have the silver Ref50 and they did not have enough silver face plates made up????That would be a HUGE mistake! The Silver face plate ROCKS!!!
Any updates, Mark?Sorry it took so long to get back to everyone.
I have been doing major work on my Home Theater room (painting, backlit poster, several movie posters, sconce lighting, etc…) and also wanted to wait for my one surround JBL Studio monitor speaker to be repaired so I could set my Ref50 up correctly for 7.1 sound.
So this weekend has really been my first weekend since getting my replacement unit to sit back and really listen to it, test it out, and enjoy it.
The new unit is MUCH better as far as the "WHINE" problem is concerned. The first Ref50 you could easily hear the "whine" especially from the left surround channel as reported by many others with the serious "whine" problem and the “whine” actually had gotten much worse on my unit the more I used it. That said I must report that the new unit still has a slight "whine" but this can only be heard if there is no source material playing, and only if you turn the unit up above reference level. Now my left surround does still seem to be ever so slightly louder as far as the “whine” but it seems to actually go away from the left surround and move to the other channels as you turn the volume up louder????. I am still doing testing on the “whine” sound... also I think I can also hear some of the “tuner” section bleeding through to other inputs but again you have to turn the unit all the way up to MAX in order to hear it and it is only on a few of the inputs and again, I am still doing test on this and will write down which inputs I can hear the bleed through on... Oh boy… I probably should not have typed that, I can just see all of the forums going crazy over that one! Nothing like starting trouble!
Also I have not experienced any problems like I had with my first unit as far as any of the channels not working. I have not read or heard about any other units with defects like my first unit had so I am going to write that off as just bad luck on my part and will give B&K the benefit of the doubt as far as QC... this time.
I also noticed that the relay switching on the new unit is much quieter but with my first unit being defective with the right front channel it may have just been that defective unit causing the loud relay noise.
How does the B&K Reference 50 sound? Well I could go on and on about how warm, and smooth and detailed and… well you get the idea… lets just say that I fired up some demo material like Gladiator: DTS-ES discrete, Star Wars: Attack of the Saber wielding Yoda, X-Men, The 5th Element, and also lots of music from the new Fleetwood Mac CD to all of my DTS audio CD’s and even a lot of Satellite music and…………. Well let’s just say I am very happy with my purchase of the Ref50 even with the slight flaws I have mentioned above. Seriously!!!! This unit really does sound that good! Those out there that have no “whine” at all must be very excited as the Ref50 sounds fantastic. Again, my JBL speakers are very sensitive and maybe allowing the “whine” to appear in my system where it may not on other less sensitive speakers. I have only tested with “balanced” connections and will test with non-balanced next week and see if there is any difference.
As always, it is highly recommended you try and audition any piece of home theater equipment in your theater room. And as always… YMMV!
One other side note: The A/B of the Ref50 and Rotel RSP 1066 should be happening sometime next week or weekend.
