BAT VK-200, Plinius SA100 MK3, or Levinson 27.5?

I am pretty sure the Plinius is not truly balanced, so with that pre amp I would look into the other two. I am not familar with the levinson but that model sounds like it hasn't been made in a while. Come to think of it all of those choices I believe are no longer being produced. I have had great luck with BAT, in particular if you have a good truly balanced preamp, you would get better results using a truly balanced amp.

I owned the Levinson 27.5 and it is an outstanding amp.
Dynamic, spacious, excellent imaging, no harshness.
I sold it only to buy a Levinson 335 because I needed
more power. Many consider the 27.5 one of the best amps
ever made by Madrigal.

The BAT is slightly dark-sounding, hard to describe but not as airy or sparkling as most amps. A great choice if your speakers or upstream components sound a little too bright. The ML 27.5 is a great amp and thought by many to be superior to their newer stuff. ML's seem to err a little to the "refined" side of things to my ears, almost too smooth. But again, many people love them for just that reason. YMMV.

What speakers and source components do you use? You need to match the candidate amp with the efficiency and characteristic of the speakers. For example, I had a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 speakers and the BAT VK-200 was not powerful enough to drive it.

System synergy is not always predictable. Certainly a manufacturer can attempt to match their preamp, amps and other components. I purchased a Classe CP-60 preamp, then matched it with a BAT VK-200. The combo works very well together. If you intend to purchase new, are you aware that the VK-200 has been replaced by the VK-250? From BAT's web site it seems that many features are similar but they have made changes. Output power is up, with the option of adding greater capacitance. The circuitry is now dual mono. And I believe they have upgraded some of the other parts. Weight is up from 58 to 75 lbs and the price from $3500 to $5000.

My source is a Proceed CDD transport mated to a Levinson #36 dac and Cardas Quadlink cabling. My speakers are Tyler Acoustic reference system. They are a new line by Ty consisting of SEAS 10" and 7" bass and midrange drivers and a Scanspeak Revelator tweeter. I just retubed my preamp with NOS Type 2 tubes from Kevin at Upscale Audio.

Sam

My system consists of: Marantz CD player, Krell truly balanced preamp, BAT VK-200, Tyler Taylo Reference speakers. The combo sounds smooth, excellent imaging, and much more musical with BAT VK-200 than Krell KAV250a. I replace the KRell with BAT.

I looked at a couple of used VK-200 amps after auditioning one with the Audio Physic Tempo IIIi speakers I just bought. It sounded really wonderful being driven by their VK-3i preamp. I currently listen to a 100 wpc MOSFET amp and like the MOSFET sound. But, I digress.

In checking with the folks at BAT, I found that the earlier VK-200's need an upgrade to their bias circuit or will sometimes shutdown during a heavy load. I know that S/N 274 needed it and S/N 371 came from the factory with it. And the upgrade is $500. So I will continue to shop for a VK-200, but only one that has a later S/N.

But I am surprised to hear the it will not drive a pair of Dynaudio 1.8 speakers. These are a quite moderate sized speaker. I can attest to the fact that the VK-200/VK-3i combo did a spectacular job on the Audio Physic Tempo IIIi at Sound by Singer. I spent several joyful hours listening before I decided to buy the Tempo IIIi speakers.

I have a 27.5. It is superb piece of equipment. Does dynamics and delicacy with equal aplomb. This is definitely a keeper. No problems at all with and you can still get it serviced by Madrigal. Come and join the Levinson family.