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I must admit that even before I connected up this amplifier I was put off by the accompanying literature. B&K makes some persuasive points about the validity (or rather the lack thereof) of some traditional amplifier tests, but the literature was so loaded with flagrant grammaticides, syntactical ineptitudes, and outright errors that I could not help but wonder if the same lack of concern had gone into the product itself (eg, the term "infrasonic" is used throughout to mean "ultrasonic"). Good copy editors aren't that hard to find; B&K should have found one.
Sam Tellig wrote about the ST-140 in December 1985 (Vol.8 No.8):
I've been meaning to write about the B&K ST-140, but keep getting sidetracked. Well, the Steve Kaiser/Frank Van Alstine flap (footnote 1) gives me an excuse.
Seriously, I wouldn't want to see this controversy—essentially a feud between B&K's John Beyer and his ex-partner, Steve Kaiser—obscure the point that B&K products are among the finest values on the market today.
JGH reported the B&K ST-140 one of the best amps under $1000 two years ago; I think it's one of the best amps, period. That's…
Sam Tellig compared the B&K ST-140 with the Sumo Polaris in October 1987 (Vol.10 No.7):
You can build a decent tube preamplifier for under a grand, and quite a few manufacturers have done so: the MFA Magus), the Conrad-Johnson PV7, the Lazarus Cascade Basic, the Audible Illusions Modulus. But a tube power amplifier for much under a kilobuck? That's just not possible, although the Quicksilver monoblocks retailed for just under $1000 when they first came out. It's the transformers in particular that make tube amps so costly to build.
So if you're on a budget, you might combine…
Sam Tellig wrote about the mono B&K ST-140 version in October 1988 (Vol.11 No.10):
In discussing the Revelation Basic preamplifier, I pointed out that one reason it sounded so good was that Superphon's Stan Warren could ill afford to put in any more parts. (Along with Alvin Gold, I believe that the simpler, the better. This is why the Epos ES-14 speakers are so good: there's hardly any crossover. And why the B&K ST-140 is such a nifty power amp: there's mostly space inside the case.)
B&K has now introduced a mono version of the ST-140, which puts out 150Wpc into 8…
Sam Tellig let Lars listen to the B&K ST-140 in April 1989 (Vol.12 No.4):
Let me tell you about Lars.
Lars is a Swede, long resident in the US, who has recently become correspondent for the Stockholm-based magazine Audio/Video. We do a lot of listening together.
I often show up at Lars's lair bearing the latest recording of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. The "Battle on the Ice" takes on added excitement when heard on a system owned by a Swede.
"I'll bet you don't often hear this work performed in Stockholm," I say.
"I never did," says the good-natured…
I drove over and, sure enough, the ESB speakers had never sounded better, to my ears. Everything Lars said was right, and I felt a little foolish for having kept the B&K in the closet, while other amps had driven my Martin-Logan Sequels. Maybe the secret was leaving the B&K on all the time—"cooking," as Lars said.
"You've got that Krell on order. You paid for it. What are you going to do now that you like the B&K better?"
I was gleeful. This was exquisite, all the more so because Lars's discomfiture was completely unplanned.
"Well, the Krell should be even…
Guy Lemcoe reviewed the B&K ST-140 in December 1989 (Vol.12 No.12):
This $498 amplifier (footnote 1) has been around for quite a while, the first review—by the one and only JGH—occurring over five years ago. He liked it, as did Sam Tellig, the Audio Cheapskate/Anarchist (Vol.7 No.4, Vol.8 No.8, Vol.10 No.7, Vol.12 No.4). It incorporates class-A pre-driver circuitry driving a class-AB output stage (this using, unusually in view of the specified power, just one pair of complementary MOSFETs per channel). A large toroidal transformer coupled with 34,000µF of capacitance serves as the…
John Atkinson wrote about the B&K ST-140 in January 1990 (Vol.13 No.1):
I got hold of the sample of the B&K ST-140 also reviewed by Guy Lemcoe last month (S/N 5506), which had been purchased by Stereophile. This amp has been highly recommended in the past and offers a benchmark performance at the NAD's approximate price level (though the latest version is somewhat different from the previous sample owned by the magazine).
The system I used with this amplifier is hardly representative of one in which it'll be used, but as I'm familiar with the sound of every component, I…
Sidebar 1: Lemcoe System Details
The only variable in these listening tests was the particular amplifier under evaluation. All other system components remained constant, with the exception of the loudspeaker: I wanted to listen to each of the amps on both electrostatic and dynamic speakers. My Acoustat Twos satisfied the former need; a pair of Spica TC-50s took care of the latter. My front-end consists of the VPI Mk.II with an ET-2 arm/Talisman S combination. Tracking force is set at 1.8 grams, and loading at the preamp is 100 ohms. Straight Wire Maestro interconnect links TT and preamp…
Sidebar 2: 1989 Measurements
The B&K ST-140 exhibited some strange behavior on the test bench. It had no problem driving an 8 ohm load, delivering 115.3W (20.6dBW). Driving 4 ohms, however, proved to be too much of a challenge. When the amplifier was driven hard into 4 ohms, its distortion increased due to the waveform becoming flat on the negative voltage swing. It finally went into a runaway condition, its distortion increasing and finally going into LF oscillation (fig.1). This condition occurred well below its clipping point. It was thus impossible to measure its continuous…