BAT VK-250SE and VK-3iX/SE

Hi Sally,
I have owned a Classe CA-200 amp and CP-60 preamp before, and it was a very nice SS setup.
I have also owned nine BAT products, including the VK-600SE amp and VK-51SE preamp. I've also auditioned the VK-3iXSE for 6 weeks in my system. I would think the BAT pairing you are considering would be a very nice step up from the Classe set that you have. I found the VK-3iXSE to be quite a pleasure, and a good value in it's price range.

A word of caution though, you may find tubes to be highly addictive sonically, and may not be able to go back to SS again and live happily. Just a word of warning. :)

Cheers,
John

Hi Sally,

Well I'm not sure of the input impedence of the Classe CAM-200's, if it's over 20K you should not have a problem. The BAT amps usually have very high input impedences, 100K or higher, which makes them very good matches with tube preamps.

That being said, I have owned a VK-31SE/50SE/51SE, and I also had a chance to audition the VK-32SE as well as the VK-3iXSE. I was not very impressed with the VK-32SE, I thought it's midrange was sweeter, but was not as powerful or dynamic as the 31/51SE's. I actually preffered the VK-3iXSE sonically to the VK-32SE too. The VK-32SE had more features, like polarity invert, balance control, etc. Personally, I would look for a dealer left over VK-31/51SE, a VK-3iXSE, or better yet, a ARC LS-26 over a VK-32SE.
FWIW, I see that Upscale Audio is selling brand new VK-31SE's w/ full warranty for less than $4K, here's a link:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?preatube&1206812271

Currently I am using a ARC Ref 3 preamp with a BAT VK-75SE amplifier, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Cheers,
John