McIntosh preamp?

[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.

[Mr Peabody]

I'll be anxious to hear how the BAT sounds, you are the first person I know who has one.

6H30, used to be called "the super tube" for it's long life. I thought those were only Russian. BAT did have them exclusive until ARC some how worked a deal for them, I'm not sure if they are more widely used today or not.

[blackraven]

All the 6H30's are made in the same Russian plant that made the old military (and highly coveted) 6H30 DR tubes. The Reflektor plant makes the Sovtek and Electro-Harmonix gold pin 6H30's which are basically a higher voltage 6DJ8.