A Closet Discovery

[Dennis_FL]

I was cleaning a closet and found an old amplifier I thought I had sold. It's a B&K 125.2 with balanced and unbalanced inputs and rated highly in it's day. I'm thinking of replacing my Buckeye Class D with it. It looks in mint condition and I will soon find out if it works.

A problem is the Buckeye senses when there is input and turns on. I don't have a DAC with a trigger output so I'll have to physically turn the amp on (I don't remember if it had standby power). I am using a Raspi 4 with Ropieee to stream Roon and it would be nice if I could somehow devise a trigger from the Pi.

Anyone know of a way to jury-rig a trigger?

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

What would you want to replace the Buckeye?
I believe the amps will sound identical if the B&K is functional and to-specs.
With the idle consumption of the B&K (60 watts , no input according to the manual), likely to be superior to that of the Buckeye.

Peace

 

[Dennis_FL]

Hi

What would you want to replace the Buckeye?
I believe the amps will sound identical if the B&K is functional and to-specs.
With the idle consumption of the B&K (60 watts , no input according to the manual), likely to be superior to that of the Buckeye.

Peace

I would want to sell one of them. Not sure which at this point. The Buckeye is the newer design and sounds great. When I hook up the B&K I'll see if it is a winner (My balanced cables aren't long enough - need to order some.)

 

[Dennis_FL]

I just found the right cables and got the new setup up and running with the 35 year old B&K class A amp. Sounds great. Maybe a touch better than the Buckeye NC252MP - ---hard to tell.

 

[FrantzM]

I just found the right cables and got the new setup up and running with the 35 year old B&K class A amp. Sounds great. Maybe a touch better than the Buckeye NC252MP - probably from the extra watts/ch.

Peace

 

[Dennis_FL]

With the idle consumption of the B&K (60 watts , no input according to the manual)

Peace

That's a lot. Buckeye in standby is 0.14 watts

 

[DSJR]

Peace

I can understand that vibe... The Class D amps are, like almost all modern dacs away from the silly-part of the high end, basically amplifier 'appliances' bought to do the job and nothing more. The B&K is totally unknown to me, but looks like a meaty old beast from yesteryear (the type of big amp I grew up with) and may well have a more subjective 'bounce' to the sound, caused by various things I suspect that the ear favours..

Remember car reviews actually criticising some motors for not having a driving 'character' to them that the journo's craved? You get in, operate the controls and come out at the end of the drive none the wiser as the machinery just did the job intended. Other motors involve the driver almost to distraction and can be unreliable and in need of regular care to keep them going (I daren't say which brand I'm thinking of, but they hail from Italy and fans stick to them like glue despite the issues, bits falling off and suspensions failing around the wonderful but needy engines in terms of belts, water pumps and so on not always cheap to replace )

My current avatar is a 60s to 1980 or so Quad 303. A true charming vintage power amp, cap coupled, vintage-interesting 'triple' on the output stage and performance tuned to keep the mids good by tuning as much undesirable stuff away from audibility as possible if not removing it all. I passed it by at the time, but mine here can sound absolutely glorious as my ancestral II valve amps do. 'High Fidelity in today's terms?' No, not really, but it's a lovely listen into loads it likes at lower volume levels.

To the OP - maybe sell both amps and get a bigger Buckeye? Just a thought