Acurus ACT3 vs B K Ref 20

I'm very pleased with my Ref 20, it's easy to setup and is not bad sounding for a pre/processor.

The ACT3 is a better sounding unit and better warranttee service and customer support.BK is notorius for promising things and doing nothing.

I have the B&K reference 30 and have not heard the Acurus. It has 2 sets pass-through inputs (a bypass input and DVD-Audio inputs). The ACT-3 used to be notorious for hiss, and I've also seen some unreliability reported at audioreview.com. I think the B&K may be more reliable, and has a room notch mode to tame room nodes. Bass management options are excellent. However, Acurus has come out with upgrades in the past, while B&K only promises to do so. Check out the reviews of both units at audioreview and I think you'll feel much more comfortable going with the B&K.

Hi, I have the new Acurus Act 3 w/bass management and can report that it has been functioning flawlessly for about 5 months, no hiss or problems with the remote or software (which I had heard used to be somewhat unreliable in the past). No analog pass-through, no balanced inputs, no 3-way video inputs (is that called composite video or the other name that begins with a "c"? anyway, it doesn't have those inputs but you can plug a DVD w/that capability directly into a TV w/that capability and program the Act 3 remote to run a macro and select all the right inputs--cool!)
I considered the BK Ref 20 but couldn't find one at a comparable price so got the Act 3.

Regards - I also have the Act 3 with Bass management and confirm the comments of Sc53. No problems of any kind in 9 months of operation, and Mondial's customer service is absolutely first rate. Regarding hum, I get the impression that the Act 3 may have been a lot of peoples first AV unit, and the unit is so revealing that there's grounding hum which they never knew was there before. Also, there's the need to ground the cable input which many overlook. Once I put the Majik in line with the cable there was no problem.
I heard the B&K, and can't comment on it's A/V performance, but with music the Act 3 immediately sounded better to me.