Bat VK-P10 and Sonic Frontiers SFP 1 Signature

i heard from different people that bat mates good with only bat.
some cases i believe are true.

is there two sets of inputs/outputs balanced/unbalanced?

if yes you should only use balanced connection and newtralize the unbalanced with cardas caps available at needledoctor.com. inverting polarity might also help as well.

in general very few all-tube phono stages have low noise floor and it's upto the consumer to judge wich ones are the best-suitable.

i possess arc ph3 that is as you might know has hybrid designe with driving sovtek 6692 and mosfets on the output.

as a rule of thumb the input sencitivity of phono preamp is higher on balanced inputs than on un-balanced and so the s/n ratio is higher.

it's ok to use adapters(Neutrik RCA-XLR pro-grade is OK Cardas is certainly better but$$).

i've never looked inside the bat units and also wonder if BAT makes tru-balanced design especially on units where both options are available.

you're not the first i hear having complains and issues about BAT units but they can realy sound great.

due to their lack of built quality i would never buy any BAT used unless Viktor will make a transferable warranty on his units(face the fact that units loose its value by more than half after being used one year!). they certainly won't offer you to remedy the problem without $$$ for used unit.

i just only hope that True Sound Audio gave you some warranty or return policy on that unit so you won't be hurt.

otherwise hissing noise is a problem that shouldn't take place in either configuration or setup balanced or unbalanced. that could be caused by a bunch of reasons that none can reveal unless this unit tested internally.

that clearaudio ground noice issue in balanced configuration tells me that the negative pin has a zero polarity and disconnected from the ground one. please check polarity to clarify.

please, make sure that you rolled the right tubes(meaning a genuine ones), placed them on the right places and the tubes are trully matched for your unit.