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BAT VK-P12SE Phonostage

BAT VK-P12SE Phonostage

One of my more memorable recent audio experiences was listening for several months to the Balanced Audio Technology Rex II preamplifier and Rex 160-watt monoblock amplifiers. For one thing, the amps simply looked and sounded marvelous with their 6C33C output tubes. The guys from BAT went a little nuts and even daisy-chained two sets so that I could hear what an extra dose of tube power does. Believe me: They didn’t need to do much convincing; I’ve long been a fan of tubes as well as BAT gear.

So when the opportunity arose to review the $12,495 Balanced Audio Technology VK-P12SE phonostage, I was more than game. BAT has gone to some lengths to upgrade its statement phonostage. Anyone acquainted with the company generally, or its ingenious lead designer Victor Khomenko in particular, is bound to know that BAT gear is superbly constructed. In P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves novels, Bertie Wooster always marvels at his manservant’s bulging brain, reckoning that its prowess can be ascribed to a steady diet of fish. Now I don’t know whether Khomenko favors fish, but the man simply exudes Jeeves-like mental prowess. He’s a relentless problem-solver. In the VK-P12SE he’s implemented a number of changes: the biggest is the elimination of BAT’s venerable Six-Pak oil capacitors, replaced by a transformer-coupled output stage. This results in greater drive and a purer signal path. Premium Vishay resistors are used in the first gain stage plus an upgraded power supply for more reserve power, which, among other things, is supposed to improve bass performance. Khomenko also uses a second-generation oil capacitor SuperPak to replace electrolytic capacitors in the supply for the first two gain stages.

Over the years, I’ve listened to quite a few phonostages, both solid-state and tube, enough to realize that there is no one perfect unit. But the bottom line for me is that a phonostage has to be quiet. I’ve endured too many bouts of dreadful hum in the past to have much patience for a phonostage that suffers from that particular affliction. The VK-P12SE might seem as though it’s a likely candidate for attracting sonic nasties; it deploys a passel of tubes—four 6922s, two 6SN7s, and four 6C45s. But the balanced operation of this unit, which offers common-mode noise rejection, definitely seems to help a lot. To ensure a balanced signal, I also used a Boulder 2110 preamplifier, which is a staggeringly good unit that carves images with a solidity in space like nothing I’ve heard. You can use adapter plugs to run the BAT into a single-ended preamp, but I really don’t recommend it; the sound was less than optimal when I tried this. It’s really best to use the VK-P12SE in balanced mode. Indeed, I had the feeling when using the Boulder that I was extracting every last bit of what the VK-P12SE had to offer.


BAT VK-P12SE Phonostage

When I used the BAT unit, it wasn’t dead quiet—I put my ear to the loudspeaker tweeter and could hear a small bit of sonic buzz—but nothing that could be detected from the listening position. For the quietest possible operation, BAT offers the option of using a step-up transformer—sourced from Lundahl—in the signal path that produces an extra 20dB of gain. As always in audio, however, nothing comes free: Use the step-up transformer and you have a slightly murkier and more compressed sound, though some listeners may prefer the extra dynamic bang that comes from employing the step-up. (In my experience, the difference that the quality of a step-up makes can be decisive: The only one I’ve really been able to live with is an external transformer wound by the Greek manufacturer Ypsilon that you can wire into any moving-magnet stage, but it costs over $10,000 in its silver version and represents a somewhat exotic option.) BAT gives you plenty of loading and gain options to tailor the unit to either a moving-magnet or moving-coil cartridge of varying outputs.

Once I hooked it up I was quickly smitten by the traditional BAT virtues—a capacious soundstage, rock-solid imaging, and a sumptuous midrange. These attributes were abundantly apparent on a Philips album I recently acquired that features the violinist Arthur Grumiaux and pianist Paul Crossley playing Schubert sonatas. Grumiaux is a wonderfully sensitive artist who plays with a more romantic sound than that favored by modern violinists. Grumiaux’s refulgent tone and suave approach to the sonatas were winningly presented by the BAT. There was no sense of grain or murk. Instead, the ability of the BAT to separate the piano and violin in space was plainly evident. Like other BAT equipment I’ve heard, the VK-P12SE seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance rather than offer an abrupt terminus. Though I definitely heard the piano echoing against the back wall, the phonostage offered an ineffable sense of a limitless horizon. A solid-state unit, I imagine, would have offered a more marmoreal presentation. This, however, came across as more lifelike.

 

That sense of a gobsmackingly wide, even cavernous, soundstage was also apparent on big, powerhouse orchestral works—the kind of thing that the late founder of this magazine would revel in when he wanted to embark upon a wild sonic ride. Take Seiji Ozawa’s Deutsche Grammophon recording of Manuel De Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, which features the superb singer Teresa Berganza. For all its sonic richness, the BAT didn’t offer a hint of sonic bloat; it kept her voice firmly in proportion to the orchestra. Was the treble slightly rolled-off? I don’t think so, but anyone looking for a little bit of sizzle in the empyrean regions should look elsewhere. The BAT remains fastidiously controlled in the treble. It isn’t demure, but the epitome of refined gentlemanly restraint.

Another plus of the VK-P12SE is its ability to deliver the goods on deep bass. The combination of the SAT tonearm, Lyra Atlas cartridge, and Continuum Caliburn turntable controls the bass region to a degree that I’ve not heard matched elsewhere, and the BAT displayed this setup’s collective virtues with aplomb. Indeed, the lengths that BAT has gone to in order to bulk up its power supply really seem to pay off. I never had the sense that the BAT was straining. Instead, there was always a sense of sovereign ease, no matter how difficult or complex the source material. There are more than a few phonostages that don’t quite reach the outmost extremes of the frequency on bass and treble. Not so with the BAT. On the sterling Count Basie album Kansas City 6, which was released by Norman Granz’s Pablo label, there was a hint of menace in Basie’s deep, growling piano notes, delivered with his inimitable panache. With Basie it’s all about suggestion, not blasting you into submission with thunderous chords. But the BAT provided a fine sense of his piano resonating on the traditional “St. Louis Blues” cut.


BAT VK-P12SE Phonostage

If you can’t tell already, I’m something of a bass freak. So I wheeled out a couple more bass-heavy albums to see what was going on in the subterranean audio precincts. After all, with two Wilson Audio Hammer of Thor subwoofers along for the musical party, it would seem like something amounting to dereliction of duty not to push things to the max. One of my guilty—or is it infantile?—pleasures is a new MoFi reissue of KC and the Sunshine Band. On “Do A Little Dance,” the bass was simply prodigious and defined. The backing chorus’ “whoo’s” were clearly defined, a sharp burst punctuating the bass line. Then there was one of my favorite jazz upright bassists, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, on a Pablo album called The Viking. Once again, the imaging was beyond reproach and the sound voluptuous. The bass notes emerged from the Wilson XLFs with authority and snap.

I’m not going to tell you, however, that the VK-P12SE is the ultimate in overall resolution. The superfine, filigreed detail that the most extreme phonostages produce, whether from Boulder or Ypsilon, take these components to another level. But they also cost orders of magnitude more than the BAT. Furthermore, a word of caution: At the BAT’s level, you’re really talking more about a gestalt, a sensation of sound, than about a lack of performance. The BAT errs on the sound of a satiny finish. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a music-making machine. It’s not about extracting the last jot and tittle of a musical line. It wants to supply the sweep, the lilt of a phrase rather than dissecting it into its constituent parts. If you’re a detail freak, then the BAT is probably not for you. But if you’re looking for a phonostage that will almost invariably seduce you with its charms, then it may well prove a valuable addition to a top-drawer analog rig.

SPECS & PRICING

Tube complement: 4x 6922, 4x 6C45, 2x 6SN7
Inputs: 1x RCA and 1x XLR
Outputs: 1x XLR
Gain at 1kHz: Direct low, 45dB; direct high, 60dB; step-up high, 80dB
Resistance (ohms): Selectable from 100 to 47k ohms
Capacitance (pf): Selectable from 0 to 1000
Dimensions: 19″ x 5.75″ x 15.5″
Weight: 43 lbs.
Price: $12,495

Balanced Audio Technology
1300 First State Blvd., Suite A
Wilmington, DE 19804
(800) 255-4228
balanced.com
info@balanced.com

Jacob Heilbrunn

By Jacob Heilbrunn

The trumpet has influenced my approach to high-end audio. Like not a few audiophiles, I want it all—coherence, definition, transparency, dynamics, and fine detail.

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