A question about a B&K amp

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Thunau

Thunau

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Joined 2001
thuneau.com
#1
I recently bought a used B&K VMR-6.5.4 six channel amp to serve as a dedicated lspCAD pro crossover simulator amplifier. It all seems to be OK with it. I looked inside and there are no op amps in the cuircuits, just transistors. All in all pretty minimalistic design. Power supply caps are huge (4 x 20000uF). My question is: where can I find some more info about this amp? I emailed B&K but haven't heard back for at least a week. Google search comes up with nothing interesting. In particular I would like to find a service manual and technical specs. Anybody?
 
#3
I bought a B&K Ex-442 more than 15 years ago and it's still working today. Pretty simple design, very few component. I remember calling the company and talked to the designer of the amp. He showed me what components to change on the circuit board to get more bass out of the amp.

Mention this just for fun.
 
#7
Bill F. said:
Thunau,

Did you ever learn anything about this amp? I am curious about it as well.

Thanks,

Bill
Click to expand...

No, haven't found a thing. Even places that sell service manuals for B&K don't have anything. It seems to be a mystery amp. I suspect that B&K was forced to stop making it because the design encroached on someone's patent or something like it. This model was made for a very brief period of time (1992) and there is no documentation to be found. I only found a mention about it on a couple of web sites.
 
#9
The amp is great. The volume controls on individual channels come in handy when trimming sensitivities for use with my 8 channel converter. I use it with lspCAD pro. I designed and built a 3 way active loudspeaker so the amp gets to drive it. I'm listening to it right now. Toto IV on SACD. No complaints. No edginess or hardness that goes with cheap amps whatsoever. For the money I couldn't pick up a better 6 pack of amps. But, if you ever get one, the one advise I have is to use it with the volume controls wide open. It sounds much better that way.

One small problem was that for a while one channel was making a bit of frying noise but it went away the day I bought replacement transistors (it figures!).
There is one posted for sale at Stereophile.com /Audiogon bugt I think they want a bit too much - $380.00. http://sphl.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/buy_cl.pl?ampstran&1078669707 .
If I remember correctly I paid $250.00 for mine on eBay.
 
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