BAT's house sound

Tom - I'm using an Ayre V-5xe. It has less than 200 hrs on it. Purist audio design Venustas speaker cable and have ordered Venustas interconnects. I ordered an Ayre C-5xe cd player-hopefully here next week, so I've got some breaking in to do. I would like to hear the BAT amps someday (especially tube). I was going to go all Ayre but wanted tubes somewhere in the chain. After reading the TAS review of the 51se, where Shane Buettner compared it to the Ayre K-1x the reviewer felt you couldn't go wrong with either, but in the end was "won over by that slightly richer palette from the tubes in the 51se".. I'm happy with my choice and the BAT matches very well with the Ayre amp.

I don't have a BAT amp, but still wanted to chime in regarding the BAT 'house sound'. While I was waiting to receive a new VK51se from BAT, I as getting buyers remorse when I started reading threads about BAT having a 'dark' sound.. I didn't know what that meant.. to me it implied 'veiled' or unnatural. I'm waiting for a new cd player, and only have 20 hours on the 51se, I'd rather reserve comment on its sound until it's broken in. But I will say, even brand new I sure don't hear anything 'dark'. I had a dehavilland tube preamp and didn't think it could get much better, but the BAT is in a whole different league in my opinion,(which I guess it should be at @ 3x the cost). I'm hearing things in cd's I didn't know were there. The build quality of the 51se is 10/10 and I was sold after talking to Steve and Victor at BAT. Even out of the box, the 51se sure cured any buyers remorse.