I got my second listen to the BAT VK-200 tonight!
headrott
Posts: 5,496
I received the BAT VK-200 yesterday from Jake. He went out of his way to help make sure it arrived safely and while I was at home. Thank you Jake.
I hooked it up in the evening yesterday and let the system warm up. I gave the VK-200 about 1.5 hours to reach a good temperature. I then sat down for a listen. The first thing I noticed was how 3 dimentional the sound stage is. It has a very wide, deep and tall soundstage. The width is close to the width of the Pass Aleph 30 (with a slight edge given to the BAT), but the depth and imaging in the soundstage surpassed the Aleph 30. I also noticed how warm and smooth the midrange is. It is very "rich" almost like high quality melted chocolate it's so smooth and creamy. The highs seemed a little "rolled off" and the sound overall seemed somewhat veiled to me though. I only listened to about 30 minutes worth of music in this session. I listened to "Stay" and "Absolutely Curtains" from Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds" on CD. I had listened to the same CD on the Aleph 30 the night before to compare. I then continued to listen to Riyuchi Sakamoto's "Left Handed Dream" CD and put on "The Left Bank" and "Once in A Lifetime". The imaging and soundstage were amazing! The sound still seemed veiled and "cloudy" to me though. "Is this really what the amp sounds like?" I asked myself. I turned the amp off and went off to eat dinner. Late last night while here on the forum, I realised that the Aleph 30 has an input impedence of 52kOhms. And, the BAT VK-200 has an input impedence of 100kOhms! I then realised that I had not switched the impedence selectors on the MIT Shotgun S3 IC's! Doh! I set them to their max positions immediately when I realised it. I had to wait until the next night to listen though.
I finally got the chance to listen tonight after the 1.5 hour warm up of the gear. I sat down and played "A Pillow of Winds" and " from Pink Floyd's "Meddle" (which I had also listened to on the Aleph 30 2 nights previously). The audio I could tell immediately was better after switching the impedance selector switches on the amp's IC's. The veil and "cloudiness" had been lifted! The sound was much more open and natural sounding. The highs shimmered without being harsh, the midrange was still luscious and and "rich" and the bass was tight (without being robotic sounding) and deep! I switched to listening to a few more songs which impressed me as much! I will need to do a few more listening sessions with the amp to get a full grasp on the sound, but I am very impressed with this amp! It has the best qualities of the Aleph 30 and the Aragon 8008bb but none of the negatives with either one (being bright and sterile sounding and having "robo-bass" from the Aragon and the possibility of running out of power (with the Aleph 30). Plus, the soundstage and imaging, and I would say overall tone is better than both the Aleph 30 and Aragon 8008bb. But, what would you expect from an amp costing greater than $1000?
Needless to say, I need to do a few more listening sessions, but I think the BAT VK-200 will be staying around for a very very long time.:cheesygrin: Some pics are below for your viewing pleasure.
I hooked it up in the evening yesterday and let the system warm up. I gave the VK-200 about 1.5 hours to reach a good temperature. I then sat down for a listen. The first thing I noticed was how 3 dimentional the sound stage is. It has a very wide, deep and tall soundstage. The width is close to the width of the Pass Aleph 30 (with a slight edge given to the BAT), but the depth and imaging in the soundstage surpassed the Aleph 30. I also noticed how warm and smooth the midrange is. It is very "rich" almost like high quality melted chocolate it's so smooth and creamy. The highs seemed a little "rolled off" and the sound overall seemed somewhat veiled to me though. I only listened to about 30 minutes worth of music in this session. I listened to "Stay" and "Absolutely Curtains" from Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds" on CD. I had listened to the same CD on the Aleph 30 the night before to compare. I then continued to listen to Riyuchi Sakamoto's "Left Handed Dream" CD and put on "The Left Bank" and "Once in A Lifetime". The imaging and soundstage were amazing! The sound still seemed veiled and "cloudy" to me though. "Is this really what the amp sounds like?" I asked myself. I turned the amp off and went off to eat dinner. Late last night while here on the forum, I realised that the Aleph 30 has an input impedence of 52kOhms. And, the BAT VK-200 has an input impedence of 100kOhms! I then realised that I had not switched the impedence selectors on the MIT Shotgun S3 IC's! Doh! I set them to their max positions immediately when I realised it. I had to wait until the next night to listen though.
I finally got the chance to listen tonight after the 1.5 hour warm up of the gear. I sat down and played "A Pillow of Winds" and " from Pink Floyd's "Meddle" (which I had also listened to on the Aleph 30 2 nights previously). The audio I could tell immediately was better after switching the impedance selector switches on the amp's IC's. The veil and "cloudiness" had been lifted! The sound was much more open and natural sounding. The highs shimmered without being harsh, the midrange was still luscious and and "rich" and the bass was tight (without being robotic sounding) and deep! I switched to listening to a few more songs which impressed me as much! I will need to do a few more listening sessions with the amp to get a full grasp on the sound, but I am very impressed with this amp! It has the best qualities of the Aleph 30 and the Aragon 8008bb but none of the negatives with either one (being bright and sterile sounding and having "robo-bass" from the Aragon and the possibility of running out of power (with the Aleph 30). Plus, the soundstage and imaging, and I would say overall tone is better than both the Aleph 30 and Aragon 8008bb. But, what would you expect from an amp costing greater than $1000?
Needless to say, I need to do a few more listening sessions, but I think the BAT VK-200 will be staying around for a very very long time.:cheesygrin: Some pics are below for your viewing pleasure.
Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
"I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion."
![:\](https://forum.polkaudio.com/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\"){kind=small}
My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....
"Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson
"Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee
Post edited by headrott on
Comments
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Nice review!
Thanks for posting.
Good to read about first hand thoughts on gear.
H9: If you don't trust what you are hearing, then maybe you need to be less invested in a hobby which all the pleasure comes from listening to music. -
Congrats, man!
The positives you described about the VK-200 are very similar to how I described my VK-500 when I first heard it. Strengths are excellent sound stage, dynamics, and separation between instruments. I also love how it has an overall warm, "creamy" tone while retaining detail and a certain open airiness up top. Haven't found a weakness yet... other than it's a b*tch to move around at 110lbs!
Enjoy!2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's
Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses
Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's -
Told ya... :cheesygrin:
Glad you like the amp and enjoy the listening! -
Very nice indeed! BAT makes some damn fine stuff. Enjoy!!"2 Channel & 11.2 HT "Two Channel:Magnepan LRSSchiit Audio Freya S - SS preConsonance Ref 50 - Tube preParasound HALO A21+ 2 channel ampBluesound NODE 2i streameriFi NEO iDSD DAC Oppo BDP-93KEF KC62 sub Home Theater:Full blown 11.2 set up.
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Nice! The BAT VK-250 is about the only amp that would replace my Parasound A21. Glad you are enjoying it. I really enjoy my VK-30 preamp.For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore...
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still lovin' my BAT VK31 pre. Before I got the VTL's was going to try and find the BAT VK500 and run two of them for the monos! some great stuff and great customer service too!
Still would be interesting to compare tube mono blocks against their SS amps to see the difference and how close to tube they can get. -
... I was going to try and find the BAT VK500 and run two of them for the monos! ...
There are (2) VK-500's on a'gon right now...2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's
Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses
Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's -
falconcry72 wrote: »There are (2) VK-500's on a'gon right now...
...they seem overpriced though.2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's
Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses
Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's -
I switched out all fuses in my system to Hi Fi Tuning (some "regular" gold and some supreme). I will report back the differences in audio I get from the switch.
I response to Chris: If you want to compare a SS amp to tubes, out of the amps I've heard that are not tubes, the VK-200 has more of that tube tone in the midrange and high end. It's not quite the same, but very nice. If you get a chance to listen to to a VK-200 or VK-500 (or two VK-500's) I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Also, I'd be interested in falconcry72's comparison of the VK-500 to a VK-200 if you have the chance to listen to a VK-200.
I'll report back later tonight with the results of the differences the Hi Fi Tuning fuses make (to my ears).
Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
"I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion."
My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....
"Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson
"Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee -
Congrats on your new amp!Salk SoundScape 8's * Audio Research Reference 3 * Bottlehead Eros Phono * Park's Audio Budgie SUT * Krell KSA-250 * Harmonic Technology Pro 9+ * Signature Series Sonore Music Server w/Deux PS * Roon * Gustard R26 DAC / Singxer SU-6 DDC * Heavy Plinth Lenco L75 Idler Drive * AA MG-1 Linear Air Bearing Arm * AT33PTG/II & Denon 103R * Richard Gray 600S * NHT B-12d subs * GIK Acoustic Treatments * Sennheiser HD650 *
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SCompRacer wrote: »Congrats on your new amp!
Thanks Rich!
I have decided to listen to the amp without the Hi Fi Tuning fuses installed in the system to give myself a better impression the sound. After I get a better grasp on the sound, I will install the fuses and reply with what differences they make.
Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
"I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion."
My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....
"Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson
"Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee
