B&K Ref50 Prepro (1 Viewer)

[Jerry Klawiter]

Chip
Enjoy!

 

[BrianChim]

Anyone else have this unit? Comments?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Chip- I gots to ask.
I saw an add for one on ebay that said "variable crossovers for all channels". I read that portion of the manual, and the crossover seems to be global. Is that what you found when you did the actual config?

 

[John Beavers]

My dealer, who has been in classes this week learning the Ref 50, says the global setting (large or small) is just the first step, after which you choose your crossover point, and I think he said it was in 10hz increments.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Yeah, but can you have different crossovers for different speakers?

 

[Mifr44]

"My dealer, who has been in classes this week learning the Ref 50, says the global setting (large or small) is just the first step, after which you choose your crossover point, and I think he said it was in 10hz increments."
"Yeah, but can you have different crossovers for different speakers?"
As far as I can tell, no. I went through all of the menus in the Ref50 and could not find any crossover setup other than the global setting (which is in the same menu as the low pass and high pass slope settings).
BTW, the crossover range was 20-200 Hz, with 5 Hz increments.
Kevin, if you are interested, LaserLand Home Theater on De Anza Blvd. in Cupertino (well, technically San Jose) has the Ref50 in one of their rooms in addition to the 200.7 amp. That's where I went to check out the Ref50.
Michael

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Michael- Thanks. I'll have to check it out.

The Ref 30 is one of the best reviewed pre/pros on audioreview.com and I'd be breaking my rule of requiring individual crossovers, but man, the Ref 50 is a beautiful piece of equipment...

 

[Mifr44]

Kevin,
I suppose if enough current and future B&K owners requested the separate crossovers as a feature for the Ref50, B&K might actually implement them in a future software release. That's what appears to have occurred with the Anthem AVM-20.
Apparently, enough requests were made to include separate crossovers on the AVM-20 that Anthem included them with the v2.0 release. The irony is that Anthem's tech support doesn't believe in them (or at least that's the story they told me). They would have just as soon had a global crossover scheme like they had prior to the v2.0 upgrade.
Actually, separate or global crossovers is not a big issue for me. I would rather these manufacturers had an option to control the LFE (.1) channel differently, either as a separate output option (like the Lexicon MC-12), sent through the subout AFTER the subout's crossover (again like the Lexicon MC-12), or sent to both the mains and subout through their crossovers (like the Lexicon MC-1).
Okay, I'll stop dreaming!
Michael

 

[Chip E]

Hey guys,
I haven't been online in a few days due to painting the room.
The crossovers are global. No big deal too me. I'm using XLR's (Monster cables). I'm the first guy in my area to get a Ref50 and use Monster's balanced cables from Tweeter.. They work well, very sturdy connection. They were pretty cheap too. In fact my dealer is getting ready to set up a Ref50 in his showroom and called me last night to ask how i liked them.. haven't really had enough time yet to say one type cable is better than the other but, what the hell, i'm going with it. The Ref200.5 is a beast of an amp. I'm really love'n my new rig!

 

[Todd Ener]

Yes, balanced cables are much better, less noise and more headroom. The best use of balanced cables are for monoblocks. Set the amps right beside the speakers and use the shortest run of speaker cable. The balanced cables are great for this as the length from the amp to the preamp does not really matter.

 

[AVspec]

So what is the going rate for the Ref-50?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Michael- I was thinking along the same lines. As soon as I can get motivated, I'm going to send B&K a real letter to suggest individual crossovers.
The Sony TA-E9000ES I had, at least had 2 interesting options for the LFE: a) a separate "mix" level in terms of how it was mixed into the overall output to the sub, b) and a "high cut" freq setting. So you could control the low pass filter setting of the LFE separately from the low pass freqs from the crossed over signals from all the mains.
Mark- I've seen the Ref 50 for as low as $2300.

 

[Chip E]

That's about right.. Depends if you have a local dealer who will move on the price or, you buy off the net.

 

[Pete Mazz]

Congrats, Chip!
When's the demo room open?
Pete

 

[AVspec]

Thanks Kevin and Chip. Hope to be getting my Ref50 soon.

Whats the 7.1 processing options look like on this unit?

 

[Elmer Millikan]

Am I missing the Ref 50 on the BK website?

Thanks.

Elmer

 

[Yogi]

All the Ref 30s will be upgraded before the site update
They are that slow.

 

[Elmer Millikan]

With what Yogi said, is there a good source of information on-line (including price) for the Ref 50?

Thanks.

 

[Lewis Besze]

I second that question!

 

[AVspec]

Well we do have a Ref50 setup in our showroom in Willow Grove. I was able to mess around with it a bit today. I do like what I see... looks like it is running version 1.00

How good is B&K at putting out firmware upgrades? Rotel has been very good thus far and I am hoping when I make the switch to get the same service....