Hmmm, the "logic" used by Rwwear really applies to all components here....why a thread on B&K was chosen to make such a statement is unclear.
I own the B&K 50. It works mighty fine in the context of a HT-only setup. I am not overly excited about a unit which is switching so many sources, audio and video; this only complicates the setup and surely must degrade the sound with all the cables criss-crossing all over the place. But this is not unique; it is typical with virtually any HT receiver/preamp-processor. The new Naim and McCormack units would be examples of such exceptions.
For me, the B&K 50 would not be acceptable as a primary preamp in a music-based system. I actually tried it in my music system and was quite impressed. It did not have any fatigue nor brightness in its tonal balance. This is key for anything to survive with me for any amount of time. I can deal with subtractions, but annoying peaks in tonal balance are not acceptable and the B&K works well here.
And with the B&K, there was quite good resolution. I could almost hear all the intricate low-level percussion with the B&K as I could with my BAT 31SE. Where the B&K 50 falls short is that it failed to convey the incredible harmonic richness and 3-dimensionality of the BAT 31SE line stage. But for movies/HT, do I really care about the width, depth and height that audiophiles strive so hard to achieve in a 2-channel music based system? NOT! With speakers all around the HT room, the fancy special effects within the movie recording bring this to me in spades. And at times when I do use this system as my priomary music source, it sounds quite good. I am impressed with how B&K retains a good quality with a unit that has so many other features besides the use as a line stage / preamp.
If I watched a lot of concert DVDs in my HT system, I think I would want more of that bloom and richness of my audio system. But I think this will be a common problem with any solid-state based multi channel system where there is much D-A and A-D conversion going on.
We read about all the simulated modes within such HT processor units. Ultimately, I just want to have the D-A conversion done as was intended by the movie creators and not play around with all the different kind of modes. And this unit decodes all the formats that exist today. What more can you ask for in this regard.
If you want a clean unit that does not have a ton of switches and knobs, etc., on the panel, this works well. The remote control is a typically laid out unit like many made by TV manufacturers. And running through the menus to set modes, calibrate levels, etc., is easy.
So hopefully I have been of some help here.
John
