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Stereophile review of Philharmonic BMR Monitor

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raindance

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I saw a brand new review online today from Stereophile for the Philharmonic BMR monitor. Aside from testing it with an inappropriate amp and some cable voodoo comments, it fared very well indeed. I can't seem to post links from my phone so someone else can do that if they wish.
 
Didn't realize that it was such a demanding load :

The minimum impedances were 2.9 ohms between 152Hz and 190Hz and 2.5 ohms at 1220Hz. As the electrical phase angle (fig.1, dotted trace) is high in several frequency regions, the effective resistance or EPDR (footnote 1) drops below 3 ohms over most of the audioband and below 2 ohms from 69Hz to 181Hz and from 861Hz to 5.5kHz. The minimum EPDR values were 2.63 ohms at 43Hz, 1.25 ohms between 93Hz and 107Hz, and 1.5 ohms between 1.5kHz and 1.6kHz. The BMR Monitor is a very demanding load for the partnering amplifier.
Click to expand...
1.25 Ohm EPDR at 100Hz where all the game is on, amp must be up to the task.
Really nice otherwise.
 
"The BMRs proved again how keenly resolving they are when I changed a couple of cables in my system midreview"

Hmmmmmm..... I guess this is to be expected.
 
Vergiliusma said:
Didn't Dennis used to use an average Onkyo receiver at audio shows back in the day?
Click to expand...
That must have been some other cheapskate. We partnered with Van Alstine for a few years and more recently have used Topping amps. For some reason Stereophile didn't publish my manufacturer's comment, although they did in the hard copy version. I pointed out that we've never had BMR's returned for lack of amp compatibility or received a complaint.
 
I've now run them on 6 receivers from $400 on up. As far as I know there's not a single complaint from anyone in 4 years. The short answer is these are an easy load and have reasonable sensitivity as well. Even grabbed a 15 year old bottom of the line icepower amp module with about 30 watts per side. Zero issues. The "difficult load" claim is nonsense
 
Dennis Murphy said:
That must have been some other cheapskate. We partnered with Van Alstine for a few years and more recently have used Topping amps. For some reason Stereophile didn't publish my manufacturer's comment, although they did in the hard copy version. I pointed out that we've never had BMR's returned for lack of amp compatibility or received a complaint.
Click to expand...
It would at least seem one will get the most from those speakers using an amp with some oomph at least. The brand has always been on my short list if/when I decide to try something else.
 
While I am definitely not a fan of Stereophile, I am a big fan of Philharmonic Audio. Very happy to see them getting some good press!

Just wish I had an excuse to own more than just a pair of CMs... BMR Monitors overkill for a garage setup? :p
 
Here are our comments provided to Stereophile. They printed them in the printed version of the magazine, p189.

Mfg Comments.png
 
I never had an issue with my BMRs being a 'demanding load' with a middling AVR or a Cambridge CXA60 or an IcePower class D amp. I did notice slightly lower sensitivity than some of my other speakers, but that was easily remedied by bumping the volume up on the remote 2 or 3 clicks. Not even worth discussing in my opinion.

JA's measurement above 10KHz does not match my measurements nor Erin's measurements of my speakers. Of course, we ignore JA's measurements under 200Hz.

1743811930085.png


vs.

1743811979242.png


Something is amiss.
 
Last edited:
I trust Dennis , he has told several folks including myself to " not worry" about amp pairing, that even a modest amp can drive bmr monitors...like he said in the above post I wouldn't use a low wattage tube amp ... But I wouldn't worry about a modest avr....
 
raindance said:
I saw a brand new review online today from Stereophile for the Philharmonic BMR monitor. Aside from testing it with an inappropriate amp and some cable voodoo comments, it fared very well indeed. I can't seem to post links from my phone so someone else can do that if they wish.
Click to expand...
To expand on your "inappropriate amp" comment, they used an amp which maxes out at 37 wpc and John Atkinson even says "I don't recommend using this amplifier with loudspeakers whose impedance drops much below 4 ohms." While, I can understand using the amp on hand, it would have been helpful to try it with a high power amp that actually uses negative feedback.
 
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