The BMU Bandits
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:01 pm
Every time that I, or just about everyone else, asked RD what I could do to upgrade my system his invariable answer was 'BMU - and then the rest'. It must have been about 4 years ago that he started using/making them and on several occasions I have been on the point of buying one, but never quite got around to it.
So, the legacy of 'The Doc' has been that the current stock of available NVA units has been offered at a substantially reduced price. He won't be building them anymore, which is a sad thought, however this has finally given me the necessary kick to acquire the BMU I kept saying to him that I would get. Whenever I look at it, it will be a reminder of him.
Balanced Mains Unit. The idea is logical - normal AC runs in a sine-wave from 0 volts to 240 volts, 50 times a second. The BMU has a transformer that alters the voltage from +120V to -120V. Still having the 240V difference to power equipment but the plus and minus voltage is now 'balanced', in harmony, equal, whatever.
The nice man from UPS appeared at my door and handed over a largish and rather heavy package. In the usual perfect NVA wrapping was concealed a mysterious black box. A single mains lead ran out of it and four mains sockets sat on the top, somehow bigger - and more imposing - than expected. An uncomfortable half-hour of rearranging mains-wire spaghetti ensued and finally things started to get turned back on.
Immediately there was silence. Not just any silence but an empty silent void waiting to be filled. Sounds come, music, instruments, effects. I slammed through a selection of tracks just to get an idea of what was going on.
Space - the final frontier!
It's the room that everything gets. And this is most noticeable on acoustic instruments. I put on Michael Hedges 'Aerial Boundaries' and instead of being blown away I was sucked inside. There is a liquid serenity that just holds you gently in the music and you simply don't want to leave. It took me three tracks to realise that the one I had wanted to hear had long finished. Then onto Rachel Podger's magnificent recording of Biber's 'Rosary Sonatas'. Not just am I hearing far more in the sense of nuance and inflection. The whole recording is a natural, living entity that you can literally walk into.
Oh dear, looks like i'm in gush-mode. Better rein it in.
Sorry Richard, it took me a long time to get here.
You were right, again.
Time to blast back off into the infinite space ...
So, in the immortal words of James T. Kirk:
Beam Me Up, Scotty!