New BAT preamp

bikerboy

I decided to replace my diy Relaxed ss balanced preamp with a BAT VK-51 se with the 6 pack. Just got it yesterday and sounds real nice. Bass drive is much better, makes the parasound a-21 work much harder I'm sure. I've had a few good preamps but this sounds more complete and full. Liking it lots!!!! Tube preamp and ss amps are a great combo. Now I have all balanced and i2s connections for the whole system except for the MC phone amp. The tpa buffalo III dac is so good with the trans384 as card player. Loving the setup!

cstmar01

Huge fan of BAT gear and overall sound. Their pres have a tube flavor but still have the SS bass drive and detail that sometimes get lost in tubes IMO. Congrats!!

Joey_V

Solid choice man

SCompRacer

Kewl! Nice combo, congrats! Welcome to 6H30 land. I'll wager your low level listening is improved.

Ever try an SUT / MM stage with LOMC cartridge? Sometimes the SQ and noise floor is vastly improved over using just a high output MC stage. Currently using AT33/PTGII > Park's Audio Budgie > Bottlehead Eros.

Upstatemax

VERY nice!

Glad you like the new sound!

Your rack and equipment looks amazing.

SCompRacer

bikerboy wrote: »

Now I have all balanced and i2s connections for the whole system except for the MC phone amp. The tpa buffalo III dac is so good with the trans384 as card player.

This reminded me of what put me into the market for a true balanced pre amp. The discrete balanced output of my Legato 3.1 in my dual mono BIII DAC. I've since ditched the balanced ground to eliminate the common mode DC between ground and bal -, ground and balanced +. As we know, the absolute best coupling caps are no coupling caps.

With true balanced gear you don't need balanced ground to get sound coming out, but you may get a small spike when switching sources so best to mute or volume down.

Have you tried the Raspberry Pi yet?

bikerboy

So I'm really liking this preamp. Great resolution but not too bright. Makes the faves: Rolling stones, magot brain/GC, LCD sound system, **** surfers, cap beefheart, LZ ect sound so much more interesting even though I've heard them 100s of times. You can use 4 languages to name the inputs. The sd card player quit so I don't have my best source to use but the pc/jriver/flac files sound great through the buffalo. Can't figure out a ground loop noise when connecting the whole house amp. But other than that sounds great. SCRacer is the enabler!!! You and that ARC.

SCompRacer

Glad you are enjoying it! I love the 6H30 tube qualities. Tight bass, highly detailed, crisp clean wide soundstage yet it still has tube qualities.

I got some tight ~ 5% matched tubes from Upscale. Would love to have DR's but too rich for me. Gotta watch close for DR fakes. Still amazing SQ for an inexpensive new production tube. The tube hour counter on the ARC is nice, but an unscrupulous seller can zero it out and say look, low hours on these tubes!

WagnerRC

Very nice

F1nut

Very nice Jeff, congrats!

tonyb

Very nice man, congrats.

bikerboy

I've thought about tubes. Looks like EH or sovtec cryoed are available. I'll need 8 so I'll see after Xmas.

SCompRacer

That BAT really looks good on top of the rack. Gotta love a pre that owns the amp.

I bought a new 6H30 to compare with the supplied tubes in the ARC. There was a big enough difference to suspect they had more hours than the hours counter showed. No big deal, no regrets, nice improvement with the new tubes.

Even though a 10% match is OK, I like the fact Upscale usually has a big inventory to match them even tighter.

bikerboy

I got the I2S output working on the denon 3910. Sounds very good. I think the sdtrans384 sounded better. I hope to get it repaired or get a new one. The BAT does offer a more critical view of the music.

SCompRacer

bikerboy wrote: »

I got the I2S output working on the denon 3910.

Did you use Teleporter? I see TP is going to make a board to attach the Cronus reclocker board to the Teleporter. I think it will just work with I2S and not DSD.

Four years and my DAC is still going strong. I did fubar the right channel of the Legato removing the output coupling caps. I think I static zapped one of the transistors when I had my fat fingers in there. I could not null out DC on the right channel balanced out. Brian was kind enough to send me a set of transistors to replace them.

I've got an upgrade in the works for Carl's BIII DAC. I ordered the TP Hermes Cronus isolation/reclock combo. I have an Amanero here that I will flash and set up for slave use, test on my DAC. It should be a drop in swap for his Amanero without isolation.

bikerboy

I used a teleporter and 5v from a nearby cap. I thought about the Hermes Cronus path but already have dual I2S inputs on both the buffalo and the Soekris dacs. Don't know if that would work?

bikerboy

Man the vinyl sounds sooo much better! The Replacements- Tim is very nice with the soundsmith denon dI-103r. The BAT brings the bass that was missing before.

All you're loosen is a little mascara!
There comes a regular.

[Deleted User]

Ha! I wore out the t-shirt
"Bad Music for Bad People"

agfrost

'Mats fan, eh? You're all right in my book. (Nice pre, too!)

agfrost

Original vinyl, or reissue?

bikerboy

Original

Nightfall

You guys like The Cramps?

[Deleted User]

It's a **** while swimming but, yes.

Nightfall wrote: »

You guys like The Cramps?

SCompRacer

bikerboy wrote: »

I thought about the Hermes Cronus path but already have dual I2S inputs on both the buffalo and the Soekris dacs. Don't know if that would work?

What would Russ White say...oh, digital switching, OTTO II! I use it to manage the DSD channel swap that occurs on the Denon 3910 DSD output via mechanical switch on rear.



I started on Carl's Hermes isolator Cronus reclocker for his Amanero. Some SMD soldering, fortunately the most of it is done. Thinking solder paste is the way to go with SMD parts. Even with just a small amount of solder on the tiny tip of iron you get a huge filet. No shorts, everything measures good across what I done, so far. I've killed quite a few U.fl's though, one slip and you get a blob of solder on the rim so's the cable won't snap on. Twenty ducks for the removal tool, ~ 40 max install/removals for U.fl female connectors.

Once I get it working in mine, it should be a drop in swap for him.

bikerboy

Rich,
Do you run your buffalo async or sync? I haven't tried sync yet?

SCompRacer

Async. The BIIISE is a lot easier to run in sync. The BIII is a little more difficult, and dual mono complicates it.

I'd like to try it some day. I could make a split U.fl cable and swap the USB / Teleporter so the Sonore USB board is centered between both DAC boards. The Sonore uses Crystek clocks.

bikerboy

Happy New Year!
I was able to figure out the hum issue. Instead of sending a signal from the dac or preamp in the man cave, I set up the pc to have multiple zones. One is an optical out to the dac in the man cave and a line out into the whole house receiver. Now no noise except a very small computer noise when I connect the i2s from the computer. Now I have a great man cave setup and it connects with the rest of the house with little noise penalty. Happy audio new year!