Pre/Power Amplifiers

The most awkward element of setup will be siting the amps – either on stands or directly onto a hard floor – by virtue of their weight. Beyond that, operation is straightforward, meaning once I'd laced up the BHK M600s to Perlisten R7t floorstanders [HFN Aug '22] and PS Audio's BHK Signature Preamplifier using In-akustik cabling [HFN Feb '21 & Apr '22] and with sources including streaming DAC and CD, I was listening to music within minutes.

Art 'N' Craft
Clearly, the BHK M600 justifies the 'muscle amp' tag, and this is an element of its performance that's impossible to ignore. However, while the power, grip and low-end reach it brought to the Perlisten loudspeakers was delicious, there's more to the amplifier than its sheer driving ability and weighty demeanour. The BHK M600 has a delivery that's smooth in the best sense of the word, an exemplary grasp of detail, and an ability to craft a soundstage of intense believability. It makes the art of music-making sound easy.

If you come to PS Audio's monoblock in pursuit of slam, weight and scale you won't be disappointed. Even at gentle listening levels, there was a depth and suppleness to the rolling basslines on Ted Nugent's sublime 'Stranglehold' [Ted Nugent; Epic EPC 494605 2], accompanied by wonderfully resonant drums. Raise the volume and this sense of low-end control and balance remains, only everything feels bigger, particularly during the song's instrumental section where the ethereal atmosphere fills the room. Amidst all this there's textural and tonal detail to savour, be it Nugent's drawling 'sometimes you gotta start low' vocal, the smooth highs of his gorgeous guitar tone, or the precise, sharp hi-hat playing.

This musical performance – rich yet combined with explosive power – is where the BHK M600 towers above lesser amps. The Berlin Philharmoniker's rendition of John Williams' 'Superman March' [The Berlin Concert; Deutsche Grammophon 486 1710] arrived with the triumphant (superheroic?) dynamics I was hoping for, but packed with so much nuance and subtlety that it began to sound like the score for a totally different film. String flurries ducked and dove beneath soaring glockenspiel and vibraphone motifs; a roomful of percussionists toiled away adjacent to an army of brass.

Voices? Handled with outrageous aplomb, whether it's the gritty, deep laments of Joe Bonamassa on his Blues Deluxe album [Provogue PRD 7158 2], or the soft-but-powerful delivery of London Grammar's Hannah Reid across If You Wait [Metal & Dust Recordings MADART1]. Throughout my listening, I was continually struck by the lifelike presence the BHK M600s gave to singers, and the sense that no detail was being air-brushed.

Biting Energy
You might therefore call its sound revealing; it always seemed to find the best attribute of a piece to showcase. Yes, Exodus' 'Scar Spangled Banner' [Tempo Of The Damned; Nuclear Blast NB 1218-0] immediately had me hankering for more of the amp's deep reach and wide staging, but this 2004 thrash album isn't mixed to really showcase the rhythm section or wrap you in sonics. It's the twin guitar attack that fans cherish, and the BHK M600 presented all the riffs, artificial harmonics and discordant solos with a pure, metallic lustre and plenty of biting energy. It was sharp and focused, as it should be.

Returning to the two 49kg elephants in the room, and the BHK M600's prodigious power. Bearing in mind its >600W/8ohm output it should go without saying that this amp didn't once sound out of breath, no matter the task at hand. Slipknot's 'Psychosocial' [All Hope Is Gone; Roadrunner Records 48kHz/24-bit download] begins at full-bore pace and doesn't stop, and it sounded both huge and urgent through these monoblocks – weighty drums, thick guitar and an edge-of-the-seat presentation that served the music perfectly.

More controlled aggression was also in evidence with The Stone Roses' cheekily titled sophomore album The Second Coming [Geffen 424 503-2], which might be blighted by vocalist Ian Brown's slap-dash approach to singing in tune but has a thrilling 'in-the-live-room' production. The standout track 'Daybreak' benefited from the BHK M600's out-of-the-blocks slam, giving the loose-limbed rhythm section an epic scale to match the spotlight shone on John Squire's outro guitar solo.

From the same album, 'Good Times' ends in a glorious upbeat jam, drummer John 'Reni' Wren flitting between ride and crash cymbals, bassist Mani running up and down the fretboard and Squire again squealing away on his Les Paul. It was a performance of extravagant energy, detail and panache. These amps let the good times roll.

Hi-Fi News Verdict
'With great power comes great responsibility' goes the adage, yet with PS Audio's new top-flight monoblock, great power equals great fun married to gorgeous musicality. These heavyweight valve/solid-state hybrids will surely drive any speaker you might consider, and do so with total control and purity of performance. Installing them might require some labour, but their music-making is effortless.