B&K Ref 50: NEED INFO PLEASE!!! (1 Viewer)

[Kelly Scott Rickards]

I saw the pix of the ref 50 in the other thread. Are there any other pix of this beast?

I have heard the ref 50 has dts 96/24 decoding and is THX Ultra 2 certified....is this true?

What about xover adjustments....is it like the anthem AVM 20?

Any links to ref 50 info and prices?

 

[DanielSmi]

Chip E is should be getting his ref50 today or tommorow so he should be the person to ask.
(man Chip it's like I'm stalking you )
Daniel Smith

 

[Jerry Klawiter]

Here
and here
I supplied the pictures and user's guide.
I was told Yes to the dts 96/24 decoding at cedia,
Not sure if this is true at this time.
Yes toTHX Ultra 2 certified
What about xover adjustments
Look over the user's guide,
You will see that it's much more flexible then the AVM

 

[Camp]

Save me the time of reading the user's guide....exactly how are the crossover adjustments more flexible than the AVM-20?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Dang, looks like just a global crossover setting... :frowning: pg 28/29 of the manual.

 

[Jerry St.Marie]

Thanks for the link to the owners manual Jerry. I never would buy anything without studying the manual first.

 

[Mifr44]

Camp,

"Save me the time of reading the user's guide....exactly how are the crossover adjustments more flexible than the AVM-20?"

While the Ref50's crossover is still global, as pointed out by Kevin, the Ref50 (as well as the Ref30) has a High Pass Crossover Slope option (6 or 12 dB/octave) and a Low Pass Crossover Slope option (6, 12 or 24 dB/octave). THX specifies a low pass of 24 dB/oct and a high pass of 12 dB/oct, which is the AVM-20's only setting.

The Ref50's slope options may or may not help a given system, much like the AVM-20's separate crossovers may or may not help.

Michael

 

[Colin Banfield]

There's no mention of DTS 24/96 in the manual. :frowning: Oh well, perhaps in the next software upgrade.
Does anyone know what DSP(s) the Ref 50 uses?

 

[Jerry Klawiter]

While the Ref50's crossover is still global, as pointed out by Kevin, the Ref50 (as well as the Ref30) has a High Pass Crossover Slope option (6 or 12 dB/octave) and a Low Pass Crossover Slope option (6, 12 or 24 dB/octave). THX specifies a low pass of 24 dB/oct and a high pass of 12 dB/oct, which is the AVM-20's only setting.

This is true,
But the B&K will let you make a pre-sets of ANY combination of EVERY setting capable within the processor.
This can be accomplished via remote or your windows computer.

The DSP is the SAME Motorola 56367 DSP.
B&K works in conjunction with Motorola's development team.
B&K writes their own software for the product.

I was just informed that these should have started to ship
yesterday.

The AVM-20 is still a fantastic product.

 

[Camp]

Cool. That's a serious amount of adjustment. A little much for me but still very cool.

 

[Jerry Klawiter]

One other thing,
Many people have made comments in the past of how slow B&K is to releasing upgrades and new products.
The Anthem AVM 20 has much fewer outlets of sales and they
can meet the dealers demands in a more timely fashion.
B&K has a huge network of dealerships worldwide and also has a large presence in the brick and mortar retail store sales.
They can not ship or show favoritism to one dealer over the other. This leaves them with no other choice but to stock pile plenty of inventory to meet the needs and ship all at once.

I just hope the ref 50 comes out with very few bugs.
I still believe that the AVM has a few features I would love to see on the B&K, But with the street price difference to me, it's not worth the extra $'s personally.
If it was not for B&K, I would purchase the AVM 20 in a heartbeat.

 

[Tony Genovese]

Just got off the phone with B&K and they were very evasive re whether the Ref 50 has shipped. They basically told me to call a retailer. I gave Tweeter a call and they now say the date has been pushed to the 25th. Last Thursday, it was the 22nd. So for those waiting for your pre-order, it looks like there's going to be a bit longer to wait.

 

[Matt Jesty]

Tony, have you ordered yours yet? who from?

 

[Colin Banfield]

Like what, for example?

 

[Tony Genovese]

Latest word on the Ref 50 is that shipments will begin next week (the 22nd).

 

[Mifr44]

There isn't much that the AVM-20 has that the Ref50 won't have. The features I could find on the AVM-20 not on the Ref50 (unless I misread the Ref50 manual) are:

• Separate speaker crossovers (5 Hz increments)
• Balanced digital input
• Balanced output to second zone possible
• Subwoofer phase adjustment (by degrees instead of phase invert)
• Proprietary 7.1 DSP mode (AnthemLogic) for music and movies

Michael

 

[Colin Banfield]

Add DTS 24/96 to the list. I wish these processors had an option to upsamle and interpolate 16bit/44KHz content to 24bit/88.2KHz. This feature sounds awesome on the Integra RDC-7.

 

[Mifr44]

I don't believe that the AVM-20 has DTS 24/96 at this time, but I could be wrong. It was my understanding that it would be available in the next software upgrade.
Michael

 

[Colin Banfield]

Yes, you're correct. It appears that the Mororola algorithms are always 6 months behind everybody else. :frowning: Even low-cost receivers have already appeared with DTS 24/96 support.

 

[Chas_T]

Gents:

A question. Is it unusual/normal for companies to duplicate/steal code from another company and use it in their processor?

For example, the BK50 has software functions that the Anthem does not have and vice a versa.

Therefore, software functions that you see today, in a month may be totally different and duplicate/mirror their competitors product?


Thanks,
Charles