wapao69

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1900.00

Summary:
Excellent mids, excellent highs, great bass, superb sound stage, he rock's, from Mozart to Snatana, to The Rippingtons to Chick Corea to AC DC to Toto to William Aura to Dave Matthews to Celia Cruz to Jarabe de Palo ..................he kick the ass of my Spendors. Great Amp.

Strengths:
Very fluid, tight bass, great sweet highs, clear mids, you will enjoy every type of music.......

Weaknesses:
Heavy monster, no weaknesses.... ; ).

fresco

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $1800.00 from from used audio brok

Summary:
The moment I used BAT vk-60 on my snell type D, I knew that my 200 watts aragon 8008 will be in the store room for a long long time. BAT vk-60 is just awesome.

How come the 60 watts tube amp beat the 200 watts solid state amp in every way? till now I still scratching my head trying to figure it out.

My 200 watts is already crazy enough to produce a floor slamming bass. The 60 watts BAT slammed the floor even harder + it shook all windows in my room at the same volume level as the aragon.

What is even more amazing about this BAT is that after 2-3 hours of listening especially when the transformer is hot, the sound is becoming more fluid and more revealing. Both the low and high are sweeter and more extended.

I believe many BAT owners dont even know that the sound of this amp is even a lot better after 2-3 hours.

Definitely a 5 stars for this.

Strengths:
Excellent in producing punchy floor slamming bass. Not only that, the high end sound is so sweet, and fluid even the bass sound sweet. Not many tube amp can perform like this.

Weaknesses:
Big and heavy. Take about 3 hours to sound its best!!

Similar Products Used:
aragon 8008 and musical fidelity preamp.

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ckoffend

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

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).

Jagpot

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.20 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $4000.00 from Dealer

Summary:
The VK P10 is in addition with the right new/old NOS tubes Telefunken E188cc and the Brimar CV1988 not to beat. The clarity in the mids and the strengthen of the bass with such an enormerous beat and a great and wide stage is the best i ever heard. For this price with a litte tune ups like the Combak Harmonics TU201 and the right interconnects like the Nordost Valhalla it presents the music quiet right. With the right turntabel like the Simon Yorke S8 you will find so much more music detail an rythm on these black dics never believed it before.

Strengths:
Clarity, great mids, tremdeous bass, wide sound stage

Weaknesses:
couldnt find one

Similar Products Used:
lehmann silver cube

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This is my first valve amp. Previously I have been a Solid State guy due to the fact that SS are low maintenance. I do not want to fiddle around and spend so much time tweaking a system. But anyway, that is a different story. Now to the BAT story. I had this amp for a few years now and I must conclusively say that it has given me and my wife hundreds of hours of listening pleasure. Our small house is always filled with glorious music from dawn to dusk. After a long and stressful day nothing beats a relaxing time in front of a BAT system and soak yourself with beautiful sound. This is my therapy! It may not have the tight bass or a growl of a Krell or a Mark Levinson but the bass is equally impressive for a tube amp. Double bass sounds like a double bass instead of a cello. Viktor Wooten from the Fleckstones can shudder the walls of my house with his bass for all I care. Jeff Beck can wail his Strat with pleasure. But what it can do the best is portray the female voice. Jacinta, Eva Cassidy, Patty Barber sounds so real in my living room. Every nuance, breath and vibrato is so uncanny that I cannot tear myself away from their hypnotizing voices. This is what drawn me to valve amplifier. I believe that this is just not the work of one component but the system as a cohesive whole. I own a complete BAT system [VK60, VK51, VK5D] Speakers in the meantime is Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20 with a plethora of wires and cables from different audio industry. The system is plugged to a dedicated outlet with a 20 amp. This is a classic system that I will be using for a long time. There is no need to upgrade if you are happy with what you have. Be contented and enjoy the music!

Strengths:
Human voice at its best! Nothing beats it

Similar Products Used:
The subterenean bass only bass freak craves.