BAT Equipment vs Audio Research

I haven't heard the ref 1 or 2 yet, but I did hear the vk30SE's (jtinn's in fact!) put into my system with my ARC vt100m2. It replaced my solid state preamp. I never heard such a dramatic improvement. Lost a tiny, tiny bit of detail, but the instruments just came alive and the sonic image instantly, unquestionably, became fully three dimensional. You felt like you could get up and walk around single instruments. Amazing. Might just get me one o them.

Has anybody compared the VK30SE's optional phono preamp (card) to an ARC ph-3 phono preamp ? I run the ph-3 right now, and I love it's sound.

Has anyone done a direct comparison of the BAT verses an AR ref 1 or 2 using a vt100 ? If I recall, the ref 1 was actually a little more detailed sounding than the more euphonically voiced ref 2.

Skip the BAT phono cards, they're little transistor circuit boards--and sound like it. Yes it's only $500 more to get the phono, but IMO that money plus a tiny bit more coin would be much better spent on a nice reasonably priced external phono stage like the EAR 834 or Lehmann Black Cube as two examples. Usually, one or the other of these will float your boat, and for the $$, they're hard to beat. If you're prepared to pay more for phono, then that changes things of course, but for under $750, I think you'd be hard-pressed to beat EAR or the Cube.

Whoops, saw that you already have the ARC external phono stage. I don't think it would be a stretch to claim that what you already have will be significantly better than the BAT phono card, no matter which BAT preamp you buy. And BTW, as a former VK-30 owner, don't necessarily assume the VK-30SE is better. To my ears, I preferred the sound of the 30 with premium (high-$$) NOS 6922s to the sound of the 30SE. YMMV

I currently have BAT VK60 SE Monos, VK50SE Pre-amp and VKD5SE CD Player. This stuff rules! My only experience with AR was a previous home-demo with an AR REF 1 into my KRELL FPB 600. I found the soundstage broad and spacious (this was okay) but I actaully preferred the Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 which I previoulsy owned. The BAT is the first time I have crossed-the-line into the "realm". The BAT may be an expensive investment, but it will save you big bucks over the long haul. I highly suggest that you either purchase the BAT or a high-end hearing aid.

Definately prefer my VK3i to my SP9 MKII, feeding McCormack DNA 0.5 dlx