McIntosh preamp?

[Jack in Wilmington]

Currently I am contemplating buying a BAT VK-51se. It sold for $9k new. I think it will give me the sound that I am looking for. I would prefer a VK-32se but they are priced too high. I talked to a guy at BAT and he thinks that it would be a great match with my Pass amp. The guy is friends with Nelson Pass and highly respects his amps.

Are you still going to listen to some Ayre CD players and ARC DAC?

[JoeE SP9]

There is a regular poster on the Stereophile site who after hearing an Oppo BD105 sold his Ayre player and replaced it with the Oppo.

[blackraven]

Are you still going to listen to some Ayre CD players and ARC DAC?

Yes, some time in the next 2-3 weeks. I definitely need to upgrade my DAC which is the weak link now although it held its own when I brought it to the stereo shop. But I feel that I need to get tubes in the preamp. My Magnepans could really benefit from them. Just hearing the difference between the X1 and the tubed ARC LS 27 and the MP3 confirmed that.

Feanor, you have to give a listen to the new 1.7's. They sound much better than the 1.6's. They have a more coherent sound and they don't have the mid bass hump that the 1.6's have. They are a little more detailed and are much smoother sounding.

[Feanor]

Feanor, you have to give a listen to the new 1.7's. They sound much better than the 1.6's. They have a more coherent sound and they don't have the mid bass hump that the 1.6's have. They are a little more detailed and are much smoother sounding.

I'm quite willing to believe that the 1.7's are better and I could probably trade up for C$1200-1300 or so. The nearest dealer is in Toronto which is about a 4.5 hour round trip so which is non-trivial at least in winter time, and right now I'm broke having bought a new DAC, the Schiit Bifrost Uber, a new preamp, the LS9, and new amp, the X150.5 in the last 8 months or so.

Fortunately I'm quite pleased with my current setup including the speakers so I will most likely hold out for another year on further upgrades

[blackraven]

Looking at the inside of the BAT goes against the "less is more" philosophy. But at least it looks like you are somewhat getting your money's worth compared to the spartan insides of some line stage preamps that sell for thousands of dollars with just a few hundred dollars of parts.

[Feanor]

Looking at the inside of the BAT goes against the "less is more" philosophy. But at least it looks like you are somewhat getting your money's worth compared to the spartan insides of some line stage preamps that sell for thousands of dollars with just a few hundred dollars of parts.

Right, well fully balanced circuitry basically doubles all components; also each channel seems to have its own transformers, i.e. this is or is close to "dual mono".

There is quite an array of heat sinks as we see; these are likely to provide cooling for separate power supply regulator chips used in various parts of the circuit; this separate regulations is generally a good thing. Also, the numerous, large capacitors are likely used in the power supplies and aren't in the signal path. {edit} Actually according to BAT, the new VK-53se has replaced output capacitors with transformers, so I guess so of the gold-colored capacitors near the top of the photo are in the signal path. {/edit}

On the other hand that design uses eight dual-triode tubes and one wonders how these are all used, especially in that supposedly none are cathode follower output buffers. Given their type, they presumably aren't used for power supply, which is presumably solid state.

[blackraven]

I was considering a VK-32 preamp that was on Agon for $2600 but it was missing the remote and it costs $500 for a new one. I called BAT and they admitted that it was outrageously expensive. When I told the guy that the remote for the Atma sphere was $950 he didn't feel so bad. I would have bought the Atma Sphere MP-3 that Upscale Audio has for sale but it does not come with a remote which is a deal breaker. Adding the remote would drive the cost up to much.

BAT says the VK-32 is warmer and smoother than the older 51se but the 51se was more detailed and dynamic. You can upgrade the 32 to an se version for about $3K. You can take it all the way up to a 33se if you want.

I just put in a bid on the VK-51se, so we will see what happens.

[blackraven]

Well, the guy has accepted my bid on the BAT. Any one want to buy a Pass Labs X1 preamp?

I will need to buy tubes for the BAT. It takes 6H30's x 8 tubes. I am going to buy the Electro Harmonix gold pin, matched pairs. I will also need a pair of RCA to XLR adapters for my DAC.