PS Audio BHK owners

i'm liking my BHK also..

I have the BHK pre and Firstwatt J2 (very low gain). I'm usually listening at 50+ on the meter. Last night I was cranking Moving Pictures and had the sucker at 80....amazing sound...clear as a bell

I guess so, Paul did say the volume control is tricky to make. He was proud of his even though it might pop at 34 or close to that. Who'd have thought a volume control would be hard to do.  Live & learn.

Usually, a volume control has the least effect on sound quality when the control is reducing gain the least (i.e., turned up). So I would not be concerned about a volume control that needs to be higher than expected.

The gain structure of many audio systems is not optimal. The amp has so much gain that the preamp has to be set for a lot of attenuation. This is not sensible from an engineering point of view, nor is it likely to improve the sound quality.

I searched Paul,s videos about this w/no luck.  I swear, you guys on here know everything.  Thank you all for the responses.

In the PS Audio Forums Paul McGowan has stated:

Paul CEO PS Audio Sep ’16

The BHK preamp has 10dB of gain.

If that is the case, that’s a good thing. You want to be able to have the volume turned up some. 40 (out of 100) is a very reasonable level to set the volume at.

My understanding is that lower gain also means that the tubes will not be run as hard as preamps with higher gain (many have 26 - 29 dB of gain), resulting in less tube noise and longer life for tubes. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can verify or correct that.

There is nothing wrong with your preamp. If the Carver is SE you are only getting 3 db gain from the BHK plus the efficiency ratings posted by speaker companies are generally fantasy’s and that is proven when JA actually tests them. Depending on the input sensitivity of the amp, the size of your room, the ambient noise level for the room and your distance from the speakers what you are experiencing is perfectly normal. But feel free to call James at PSA and talk to him but you need to have that input sensitivity number before you do.  I have owned the BHK preamp for over three years and used it with at least a half a dozen different amp and at least that many different speaker combos and the optimal setting was different for every one.

FERTGUY what is the gain of the preamp and the amp your speaker are low efficiency amps watts do not matter

I was thinking maybe send it in. I send PS an email asking just that. Thanks.

Fertguy

I have the BHK preamp and my amp is the Pass Labs xa30.8 and it’s only 30 watts per channel and my speakers are Eminent Technolgy LFT8B’s which are very inefficient (83 dB)! My average listening level is #30 on the display on the preamp, if I go to 35 it starts to get pretty loud and if I turn it up to 40, that is too loud. I don’t listen at head banger levels either. I think there is something wrong with you preamp. I would send it back to PS Audio and have them look at it if it’s not too expensive. Good luck.

Scot

Thanks for the information.  I like the pre fine, I just had concerns about the volume settings. 

The gain is on the low side. 40 - 60 is what I run and it’s a bit louder with 6 volt tubes at the 5ma bias setting. Of course there are many other factors such as speaker efficiency, room setup and XLR vs single ended connections, with the former 6db louder. My Pass XP-22 sounded appropriately loud at 65 - 80 out of 90, the upper limit I think. Now the ARC Ref 6 I’ve had recently will blow me back in my chair at 35 out of 100 or whatever it’s limit is!

My Kanta 3s are 91db

OK, that sounds about right.  75 would be loud loud.

I ran my BHK pre typically in the 30 - 60 range with a couple of different amp set ups.  I like to listen to music at "realistic" volume levels.  To really blow the walls out, I would get up to 75 or so.

Depends on the input sensitivity of the Carver and whether you are using SE or XLR connections plus the sensitivity of your speakers. The wpc of the amp is irrelevant.

A carver amp. 375 wpc  Rotel 1070 cd

What is your source?