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Review 3 of 22
Price Paid:
$3000.00
from Audiogon Summary:
Having gone through too many amps in the past year (starting with Golden Tube Audio as my starting point, and a good starting point at that as the SE 40 amps are way under praised, over performing amps at any price). I have owned CJ, Mark Levinson, Channel Island, Pass Labs, Theta and a couple of others in the past year. I now have a pair of the VK 60s that I run in mono configuration. I bought a VK 5i preamp to go with them. My plan is to only run the VK 60s during the colder months and a Mark Levinson during the summer (Michigan).
Overall, I have been impressed with the BAT amps, especially on the weekends where they are left on from Friday evening through Sunday night and they settle in very nicely in this arrangement. Otherwise, I feel a good half hour is a good warm up time (15 minutes minimum). During this initial turn-on/warm-up time you can hear the tubes warming up and what I suspect is the biasing of the tubes automatically (of course this can only be heard if you are not listening to music). I find that every once in a while I will get a tube that does not appear to bias, typically touching the tube or slightly adjusting its position corrects this immediately. This seems to be more of an issue with the bottom shape of the tubes than the equipment. There are sources for the tubes at only $40 each vs. the $80 price from BAT (6C33 tubes were all manufactured at the same plant so there is no difference) which represents a pretty good savings.
The VK 60 has fairly good bass, especially for a tubed amp of this power (120 in mono). The midrange is nice and the transition up the scale is smooth with no real anomolies. I think the midrange is the strength of this amplifier, which if an amplifier has a strong point related to the audible range is where a strength should be. I find female voices in particular, but the human voice in general is protrayed very well with these amps. I find the highs quite good as well, in my set-up they are never etchy or bright, not over emphasized and certainly not disappointing in any way. Is this the best amp for reproducing the highest octaves? No, but overall the performance in this range is very solid and better than many, in fact most, amps I have reviewed/owned.
These amps deliver an airy, open sound stage with good separation of spaces, nice depth and very good width and height. The bass is pretty good (for tubes), not as tight, punchy and controlled as my ML. However, running the amps with subwoofers (I use Rel) I find really helps the musically presentation by reducing the absolutely bottom octaves being delivered by this amp to the speakers, this is what I recommend. This helps tighten up the bottom end with these amps. Don't get me wrong, they are fairly solid lower octave performers and many may/will find the sub is not necessary.
I can highly recommend this/these amps. While I have not listened via a single unit in stereo mode, I have heard that with moderately efficient speakers, they in this mode they are also very good amps.
They are very large amps and don't fit on my audio rack facing forward, so I have them installed sideways (no not on their side, with the side of the amp facing forward). I would prefer a power switch on the front vs. the back of the amps. They run very, very warm as do most amps with this number of tubes and those living in warm climates may want to take this into consideration if your air conditioning system is not strong. They definately suck a lot of power (especially two) so I recommend when running two, turn on one at a time (I have never blown any breakers, etc. . . ).
4.5 Stars!
Equipment I run with these amps:
BAT VK-51 Pre-amp
Audio Aero Capitole and Prima CD Players
Wilson Audio Duette Speakers
Thiele 2.X speakers
Various brands of good quality cabling (but not break the bank stuff)
Strengths:
Great midrange, excellent staging in all areas, solid power (in mono, never listened in stereo mode), beautiful with the human voice, better attack than many other tube amps. Overall, a very positive good amplifier. Seems like the autobiasing works well and helps with buying/replacing tubes. Weaknesses:
Heat generation, power consumption, sheer size. Limited to a single power tube (less experimentation). Similar Products Used:
amps: Conrad Johnson, Pass Labs, Golden Tube Audio, Mark Levinson, Theta, Channel Islands (for comparison with the same gear - spkrs, CD player, but various preamps).
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