Got a BAT VK-225se ... Holy Moly!

@mrdecibel ...I returned the Sachs preamp. There was some damage to the unit due to shipping, and the wait in the queue was too long. Don was great and gave me a full refund. However, I was able to hear the Sachs preamp for a couple of hours and it sounded quite good; however, it was not a night and day difference to my existing BAT VK-3i.

So, I decided to keep the BAT preamp and match it with a BAT power amp for purposes of synergy. They work great together, and I like the BAT combo much better than the Sachs/Musical Fidelity combo.

@gochurchgo ...I did not pay list on the amp.

Thanks to all for the good wishes. The sound of the BAT combo is awesome and I’m having a huge blast. The VK-225se has amazing punch and control; it is a wonderful amp and I am very pleased with it. Not cheap, but this is a prime example of paying for quality.

One recommendation ... it turns out I had some DC offset on the line going to the amp which resulted in a very slight transformer hum. Hadn’t heard it with my other amp because it is choke regulated. Anyway, I bought an Emotiva CMX-2, which has a DC offset feature. I plugged the BAT into the Emotiva, and there was dead silence ... no hum at all. Here’s a link explaining the Emotiva unit ... I recommend it highly, particularly for units with large, toroidal tranformers. https://emotiva.com/products/cmx-2

What's your reason for selling?

@stereo-one ... it depends what you’re looking for. The VK-255se is a Mosfet amp and runs kind of hot (Victor told me that as well). Victor told me also that he thought the VK-225se was an under the radar amp, and that it hasn’t gotten the kind of attention it deserves. IIRC, the VK-250se also is a Mosfet amp and may run hot as well.

As to sound, I’ve always found BJTs (like the VK-225se) to have a very nice overall balance while Mosfets seem to have a bit more slam. Given that I have a small room, I felt that the 225se was more appropriate for my application. Of course, YMMV.

Remember that this is just a generalization, and could change based on how the circuit is implemented by the designer. You may want to try both in your system, if possible, and listen for a synergy that satisfies you. In any event, one really can’t go wrong with a BAT amp and pre-amp combo.

@stereo-one ... I think any bass bloom with the VK-225SE is due to having matched the amp with a SS preamp. I have never had luck matching SS with SS. In my case, I have an older VK-3i tube based preamp which works very well with the SS power amp. Also, you may want to check on your room treatments. If the room is untreated, then call GIK Acoustics for an opinion as to how to treat yours. If the room is treated currently, then you may be sucking up too much bass ... so, start to remove some treatments incrementally and that may help. As to the noise, that was an issue with hash on my house lines, which was remedied by the Emotiva CMX-2, and I suggest you try one if you don’t have a dedicated line.