Not as detailed as some other amps, good to tame bright speakers and electronics.

see above

Not as detailed as some other amps

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon, Parasound, Kenwood, Luxman

Power

Can be bright if used with the wrong interconnect or speakers that are bright to start with.

I used this along with the B&K pro 5 pre amp and found it had a really nice sound.can play real loud.A touch bright at higher volume.Really great bottom end with good depth and clarity.The real test was pluging the source,Mcintosh MCD 7008 CD Player directy into the unit and bypassing the pre amp.Wow can this amp sing.I am a big beliver in lsess is more and the less equipment in the singnal path the better.If tyour source allows you to adjust the volume.this is the way to go.More detail greater depth better channel seperation and lots of power.use this amp by itself you will be very surprized at the sound.I have heard many more expensive amps than this but few that match it without spending 1500.00+.highly recomend this amp.

Power,excellent channel separation,Price for used units of this type on e-bay

Gets hot

I have to agree with many of the other reviews on this unit I find that it is powerful,clean sounding and has excellent channel separation.It drives my 4 ohm speakers effortlessly.The sound stage is much wider and deeper than the Yamaha receiver that is preamping for them.My rig consists of Yamaha RX-V800 receiver,B&K ST-140 amp,Yamaha cd changer,Toshiba SD-3109 DVD,HK turntable and analog tape deck,Panasonic and Magnavox VCR's.Speakers Ohm Walsh 2's in front Celestion DL-4's in back Atlantic Tech sub.

Similar Products Used:

none

build quality, design, power and separated output channels.
Class A amp design.

coz it is Class A, it runs hot, it can be good or bad for someone.

I must say that I agree with what James said about this bk piece. I've own the st 140 for about 12 years now, and it is still very strong and powerful. This is a solid state amp and it will not die on u.
Recently, I just bought two bk reference 4420 mono-block to power up my front B&W 802 ant that 250w sound like 500w. I enjoyed every pounding and smooth high-end in the symphony. However, the price is treble of the st 140
I also own an Bryston 3B, and that is a heavy & powerful sucker. It have good large soundfield and steady wattage. However, again, it is very expensive compare with the bk ST 140 which I brought for $1000 12 years ago. I still say with bk's traditional "big cap" design, they just sound better.
Today, all amp industries try to cheap-out the parts that uses inside the amp. It is hard to find a pure class A amp with the ex-large caps inside like the bk ST-140 .

Similar Products Used:

b&k 4420M, Anthem, Bryston 3B-st

Soundstage, midbass, smooth, very smooth, built like a tank

being very nitpicky - upper frequency detail, small hisssssss when not being fed source, no gain control

I've just replaced last night my B&K ST-140 for my main L/R with a B&K Ref 4420. You know what? Even though the Ref is more detailed and a little more open, I'm not sure (yet?) that I prefer its sound to my ST-140. My speakers are Paradigm 40v2 which tend toward bright, and I found the St-140 with its slightly dark sound and laidback upper freq presentation, coupled with its mid-range smoothness, is an excellent sounding amp which can help tame brightness.


I've never heard tube amps for any extended time, but if tube = analog = smooth and digital = solid state = detailed, then the B&K ST-140 definitely is closer to the tube side than the newer B&K ref.

Highly recommended for the price. For you watts per channel only people, the 105 w/p/c rating is a joke compared to receiver ratings. If this were a receiver it would be rated at least 150 watts, probably closer to 200.

Add to this B&K support and all the mods available for this amp, i.e. musicalconcepts.com, and I think its almost impossible to beat for the money.

Similar Products Used:

B&K Ref 4420, Marantz MA-700 monoblocs

Soundstage, warmth and stereo seperation

You got to be kidding me at $225.00.

I got the bargin of the year. This amp totally blows away(and I mean BLOWS AWAY) the Hafler DH-200 I was using. The soundstage IS my living room. I can't believe how much better this amp is over the highly rated hafler, I just can't believe it. The Hafler was awesome, I don't know what adj. to use for the B&K.

Don't walk, don't run.........FLY to get one of these. I have a Rotel 985mkII amp for my HT in the den. This B&K sounds better than the Rotel on music. Go get one, e-bay has them all the time.

System:

B&K ST-140
Cambridge Audio D500 CD player
Nad tuner
AMC pre-amp
Energy C-4 Speakers

Yummy isn't it!

Similar Products Used:

Rotel 985mkII and Hafler DH-200

The ST-140 is a classic that has seen many revisions in its lifetime. I first owned a ST-140 in 1984 along with several subsequent versions. When I saw this posting, I had to contribute based upon past experience with its use and familiarity with its circuit design.
The ST-140 has some similarity with the Hafler DH-200 (the first commercial amp to use Hitachi's complimentary N and P channel MOSFET output devices) and Van Alstine MOSFET circuit designs of the past which were quite the rage of audiophiles in the early 1980's. Without getting into the circuit topology, the ST-140 does indeed produce a nice, non-fatiguing sound, with acceptable detail. No, it's not the last word on detail. But I'll usually take smooth and liquid over harsh and bright any day if I have to choose between the two. This amp can help tame overly bright systems (often those that employ speakers with metal dome tweeters!). And, some minor circuit modifications may help increase its performance.

It's main shortcomings are a lack of extreme deep, tight, low end and inability to drive complex low impedance speaker loads to higher output levels. This may not be a problem in your application, however. I also think B&K could have packaged the unit more efficiently--much of the space of its cabinet is open making it larger than it has to be.

If you find a nice used unit at a good price and like a smoother, somewhat laid back presentation, this could be your amp. It does many things pretty well--especially the difficult middle range, even after so many years.

(My 4-star rating considers value, so I assumed that you got a good price on a used ST-140.)

This Amp was the first "good" amp I had ever owned. I recieved it as a Christmas present (best one I ever got) along with a B&K preamp, JSE Infinite Slope Model 1 Loudspeakers, Linn Axis turntable, and Creek tuner. Previously I had owned an all-in-one Sony entertainment system. When I first powered-up my new stereo (listening to, "The Spanglemaker" by the Cocteau Twins) it was like a whole new world...it was an incredible experience. I remember my ST-140 fondly -warm, a little bit bottom heavy, with a fairly deep soundstage. Like the commercial says, " you never forget your first amplifier".

I've had the pleasure of using this amp for @ 3 mos. now. I agree with the general tone of the reviews to date. It isn't the last word in detail, but it offers a very enjoyable, non-fatiguing sound. I have it setup in my office system with a CAL DX1, Musical Fidelity X-Act DAC, Adcom GTP500 preamp tuner, PSB Alpha speakers, and Audioquest cables. I bought it used for @ $250 on eBay and I couldn't be happier. I was able to assemble this whole system used for under $1000 and I'm hard pressed to spend more on it. It's not my main system, but I enjoy listening here almost as much as my main system. 4 stars on price:performance.

I just received these amps purchased on the used market. The BK ST 140 are an 8yr old mossfet design which is rated at 150 watts into 8ohms and 225 into 4 ohms. Not being very familiar with BK products I didnt know what to expect. I immediately substituted them in my reference system swapping the CJ Premeir 11a.
Auditioning was done over several days using the CJPV10a tube preamp, Classe CDP.5, and PSB Strautus Golds. All interconnects were Silver Audio and speaker cable was Kimber 8tc. The one thing that became very apparent was that it was a good match for the CJ PV10a tube preamp. I have found in past listening experiences that many mossfet designs sound overly warm with tube preamps. This was not the case with the BK ST 140. It was a good match sonically.

This amp has good transparency. The voices on both male and female vocals were displayed in a palable way. The amp portrays good left to right soundtage with only fair soundstage depth. On classical records I became very aware of its dynamic cabability. It produces incredible power with that degree of slam that good solid state amps provide. On rock recordings it gave me that toe tapping feeling that I sometimes miss on my tube amp.

The BK St 140 provides clean power and unlimited dynamica at even the highest volume levels. After detailed listening sessions with these amps the one thing I noticied it fell short in detail, timbre and transparency of the CJ Premier 11a. The soudstage was also noticibly smaller with out the depth or layering of the tube amp. Vocals were less real and bass while being more potent was much less deined. I didn't hear the fine pluck of guitar strings or the palability of drum skins. The CJ Premier 11a provides the more realistic version of listening to live music in a concert hall.

While I was listening to the CJ Premier 11a I was lost in the music. It became very involving. I never had that same feeling with the BK ST140. I enjoyed my listening session with the BK ST 140 but I missed the CJ Premier 11a. In all fairness the CJ amps are three times the price of the BK units. The BK produce good clean power anre transparent and give tremendous slam. For the price if you are looking for good solid state brut amps on a budget this could be your ticket. I liked them better them my ADCOM 5800 which sounded overly warm in my reference system. I think anyone looking in the ADCOM range should give serious consideration to BK products. This is one good solid state design at a bargain price.