BAT VK-500 In The House

falconcry72

The Beast has arrived. This power amp is replacing a Parasound HCA-2200ii in my main 2-channel rig. The 2200ii was my first separate 2-channel power amp, and when I got it I thought it was a beast; well, it has been de-beasted:
















The amp arrived today about 2.5 hours ago. It was triple-boxed, with the original box as the interior box, so it was safe and sound. I had to rearrange my whole rack to make room for The Beast, but it fit without a problem. Luckily the feet were close together, otherwise it would have gone on the ground. It was kinda fun to tear down the whole rack and build it back up. I got to make sure everything was connected correctly and revisit my toys. Here she is all settled in:








And a little tube **** for the pervs out there:




Time for tunes.

EndersShadow

Lol want to donate the Parasound to the "Help a polkie out" fund..... I bet it would drive my lsis quite nice lol

Just kidding. Relax and enjoy the tunes!!!!

falconcry72

EndersShadow wrote: »

Lol want to donate the Parasound to the "Help a polkie out" fund..... I bet it would drive my lsis quite nice lol

Just kidding. Relax and enjoy the tunes!!!!

lol. I have a bunch of matching Parasound stuff that I might get rid of soon. I'll decide in the next couple months.

Oh, and, yes, it would drive your LSi's beautifully. :cheesygrin:

falconcry72

DSkip wrote: »

Good.........................Lord..................


Are you trying to make up for something? :evil:

Yes, the lack of (1) soul.:twisted:

EndersShadow

Well falcon you could call it an early birthday present if you wanted

Man I need those cables and the 3490 to move lol

falconcry72

EndersShadow wrote: »

Well falcon you could call it an early birthday present if you wanted

Man I need those cables and the 3490 to move lol

There's a 2200ii on ebay right now. They come up very rarely... I'm interested to see how much it goes for.

EndersShadow

falconcry72 wrote: »

There's a 2200ii on ebay right now. They come up very rarely... I'm interested to see how much it goes for.

Well it's faaaarrr beyond my budget lol.... I'm on the PBR budget unless someone sells me the good stuff at a PBR price lol...

Toolfan66

That amp is "BUCK"!!!!

falconcry72

Toolfan66 wrote: »

That amp is "BUCK"!!!!

yea, boy! Best amp I've owned. This is gonna be a looong weekend of revisiting old music.:biggrin:

hochpt21

Wow.

Drenis

Toolfan66 wrote: »

That amp is "BUCK"!!!!

X2

Dead sexy. Enjoy!

falconcry72

hochpt21 wrote: »

Wow.

That's what my back will be saying tomorrow AM. 130 lbs boxed, 105 lbs naked. Probably didn't need to throw it up on the table for pics... but what the hell!

hochpt21

That thing would eat my bk as a midnight snack.

Beautiful setup btw.

chandler9a

That amp is just awesome! NICE room set up as well... enjoy the weekend

brianle

Impressive

headrott

Looks good. Also, is that a Stella Artois I see in the second picture down in the background?:cheesygrin:

tonyb

Ya mean you didn't opt for the 600 with the Bat-pak ?

Kidding bro....very nice amp and more than you'll need for a very long time. Good people to do buisness with too but you'll have to brush up on your Russian to understand their heavy accents over at Bat. Sweet looking rig too. A nice mini review when you have some couch time comming up would be nice too. Happy listening.

[Deleted User]

headrott wrote: »

Looks good. Also, is that a Stella Artois I see in the second picture down in the background?:cheesygrin:

Was wondering that myself, explains some of the late night posts around here. Nice amp Ben, will be interested to here your comments. BTW - don't see my RTi A9's anywhere ??? :cool:

falconcry72

nap wrote: »

Was wondering that myself, explains some of the late night posts around here. Nice amp Ben, will be interested to here your comments. BTW - don't see my RTi A9's anywhere ??? :cool:

The A9's are long gone. Moved them on to a buddy. I replaced them with LSi-15's. I'm running a full LSi setup now and I really dig it!

pearsall001

Now that's what I call a "MAN's" amp! Congrats & enjoy. How's your back by the way???

falconcry72

pearsall001 wrote: »

Now that's what I call a "MAN's" amp! Congrats & enjoy. How's your back by the way???

lol, not bad! I guess I'm not that old yet...

heiney9

Very nice amp. I like BAT gear. My brother has RT1's old tube mono's and a VK-55 pre-amp. He's had a couple issue with both and Viktor and mostly Vlad have been extremely helpful w/quick turn around time for repairs.

H9

hochpt21

I like the sunburst on that epiphone. That and the strat. Any other guitars?

falconcry72

hochpt21 wrote: »

I like the sunburst on that epiphone. That and the strat. Any other guitars?

The Epiphone is a buddy's. The Strat is mine, I've had that thing for about 12 years. My only other guitar right now is a Taylor 314-CE acoustic. Unfortunately, I sold my favorite guitar ever a few years back. It was a PRS Mccarty in Violin Burst. mmm.

hochpt21

Ive got a strat and a Taylor also. Currently don't get much playing time with my two little ones, but I'll get back there soon.

cstmar01

tonyb wrote: »

Ya mean you didn't opt for the 600 with the Bat-pak ?

Kidding bro....very nice amp and more than you'll need for a very long time. Good people to do buisness with too but you'll have to brush up on your Russian to understand their heavy accents over at Bat. Sweet looking rig too. A nice mini review when you have some couch time comming up would be nice too. Happy listening.

Geoff Poor is great to talk to IMO. I've gone to his shop in southern IL and he is a great dealer and also great about the company. Also he's not Russian so nothing to worry about there.

BAT is awesome stuff and that is the first VK 500 on the Gon for a LONG time. I have the VK31 and love the thing and have talked to them about the mods to the VK31SE and they are super helpful and fast responding. I really like the company overall and even Geoff as the marketing guy doesn't push anything on a person. At his shop he kept saying that even if you buy new from him he thinks its fun to start at the base models and then do the SE upgrade or like the BAT PAK etc.

organ

Super! Very nice gear and set up there, Falcon. Thanks for sharing.
That amp is much bigger than I thought lol.

BlueFox

Is that a Yellow Lab asleep on the floor? I had one for 15 years. There is a reason why the word retriever is part of their name. That dog would drive me crazy playing fetch with tennis balls.

By the way. Nice setup. Enjoy it over the weekend.

reeltrouble1

falcon,
I used that amp for a couple years, it was truly stellar and the first really hi-fi piece I used, I moved eventually to tube amps but would not hesitate to recommend or use another VK500, if you ever get the urge you can get another one, easily bridged you then have a VK-1000, mono-block. I remember when I sold it to a fellow to replace his Krell. He was amazed at the bass the BAT delivered over his prior amps. BAT has terriffic customer service as well. You get to hear the difference a Hi-Fi piece brings. Oh, and its way better than that PASS stuff!

If your not using a dedicated 20 amp circuit you might consider it. For a real kick give Vladamir a call at BAT, he is their primary tech guy and ask him about powering your amp, you will get alot of good advice and some entertainment to boot. In your best Russian think..........Issss verrrrrry powerfullllll ammplifierrrr.

Enjoy.

RT1

falconcry72

BlueFox wrote: »

Is that a Yellow Lab asleep on the floor?

Yea, that's Chase. We didn't realize how appropriate his name would be!

He's 13. Best dog in the world. He shows up in a lot of my system pics... normally he hangs out right in front of the speakers when I'm jammin'!:biggrin:

falconcry72

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

falcon,
I used that amp for a couple years, it was truly stellar and the first really hi-fi piece I used, I moved eventually to tube amps but would not hesitate to recommend or use another VK500, if you ever get the urge you can get another one, easily bridged you then have a VK-1000, mono-block. I remember when I sold it to a fellow to replace his Krell. He was amazed at the bass the BAT delivered over his prior amps. BAT has terriffic customer service as well. You get to hear the difference a Hi-Fi piece brings. Oh, and its way better than that PASS stuff!

If your not using a dedicated 20 amp circuit you might consider it. For a real kick give Vladamir a call at BAT, he is their primary tech guy and ask him about powering your amp, you will get alot of good advice and some entertainment to boot. In your best Russian think..........Issss verrrrrry powerfullllll ammplifierrrr.

Enjoy.

RT1

RT1,

You actually helped me make my decision on this amp... some of your posts here from several years back when you had yours gave me extra confidence. I hadn't really decided on a particular model, or even a brand, but BAT was a brand on my short list, so when this one came up for a good deal, I jumped on it.

I have been very pleased so far. Beats the 2200ii in every respect. What I like the most is how open and airy the top end is. It reminds me of when I first added a tubed preamp to my rig. It's so smooth I find myself listening at higher DB's with less fatigue. Excellent bass too, of course. I can't believe it fit in my rack!:eek:

So yea, thanks for the help!:biggrin: