B&K AVR505

High quality sound but technophobes beware!

By Tony Davey

December 2004

B&K AVR 505. $6995

B&K are an American brand of stereo and home theatre amplifier manufacturers whom have been around for about 23 years. They specialise in quality components and are typically only available through either professional installers or through limited specialist retailers.

This might appear to be a little snobby however they market themselves in this way for good reason: their components are designed to be professionally installed, set up and calibrated using proprietary software. This method of controlling distribution ensures that each B&K component sold is set up to maximise the quality and usability of the product. The importance of this can not be understated - poor set up of equipment can markedly detract from the optimal performance, removing any “advantage” obtained in paying for premium product.

The disadvantage to this for an average end user is it can be complicated to alter the settings. An example of this is when I used my DVD player as a CD player and chose stereo mode on the remote. This in itself was not sufficient to set it to two channel stereo, you also had to specify the number of speakers to use. It is likely this would be sorted out by the specialist set up software, but is certainly something to consider if looking at this unit.

Very 'umbling

The set up issues aside, this is one seriously good sounding AV receiver, the dynamic range that it produced is outstanding (even humbling my own Denon AVC-A1 amplifier). The dynamics from movies was incredible. The control the 505 showed over the bass from movies like Saving Private Ryan, Xmen2, Star Wars and Toy Story 2 was just plain scary. Never before have I heard such low tones from my Image Reference speakers or Velodyne CT-150 sub.

Bullets whizzed past my ears and explosions were incredibly deep and tight. The 505 also recreated tremendous ambience from soundtracks with a spacious open feel to the soundfield. The magnificent musical feel to the score with the John Williams’ Star Wars score filling my room and helping draw me into the suspense of the movie.

With 150 watts of power into eight ohms, the 505 was plenty loud enough to scare the cat, but home theatre isn’t solely about loudness, it has to be clean as well. Too often I hear “if it’s loud, it must be good”, from home theatre enthusiasts. This is woefully wrong in many instances, but not with the 505; it’s loud and it’s good.

Also evident from the home theatre modes was the bass power and control. The number of receivers where I can leave my sub off and still achieve good bass levels from my very hard-to-drive Image Reference speakers are few and far between, but the AVR505 is certainly one of them. The drums and heavy bass guitars in Pink Floyd’s The Wall had real depth and weight to them, stunning infact. 

The 505 is also exceptionally musical for an AV receiver, with the full spectrum of my humble CD collection sounding good. Pink Floyd to Norah Jones all fared extremely well.

The openness revealed in Home Theatre was equally well replicated in CD playback, with stereo playback having a wide front soundstage and providing plenty of detail across the sound spectrum.

More channels?

While the AVR505 is able to decode DTS-ES and THX-EX, both 6 (or commonly 7) channel formats, yet there is only onboard amplification for 5 channels. The 6th (or 7th) channel needs an external amplifier connected (via the pre-outs). The next model up in the range, the AVR507 is spec for spec identical to the model reviewed here, except for the addition of 2 more channels and is $1,000 more, perhaps representing “better value” for 6/7 channel home theatre (try and find a 2 x 150 watt power amplifier for $1000?).

My gut feel is that long term the 507 may be the wiser purchase however if you don’t have the space available (or the desire) for a 6 or 7 channel system, the AVR505 sets a high performance mark. With the purchase cost inclusive of a fully customised set up (service doesn’t stop at your car boot) to maximise the performance potential of the amp, the AVR505 represents truly stunning performance.