Musician vs. audiophile

To add to my previous post, many McIntosh solid state amplifiers have balanced and unbalanced input impedances in the vicinity of 20K. Driving impedances in that vicinity will almost certainly be a problem for your preamp, if it does not have the Six-Pak upgrade installed.

Regards,
-- Al

I am not familiar with the BAT amplifier.

I have had a pair of Sopra No2's and McIntosh MC452 power amp, since the Sopra's were first available and am so "smitten" I'm not looking to change.

One thing I found about my Sopra's was that it took at least 200 or so hours of break in time, for them to open up some.  But at around six months or so, they really seemed to "relax" and sound less "confined".

These speakers throw a "huge" amount of sound, yet I've found they are
very adept at the "performer in the room" sound stage.

To add to my previous post, i'm very familiar with Wilson speakers -- they're the very reason of spending a fortune and receiving a lady-bug size performance. 
overpriced and sound very poor in general especially Alexandria. in fact the higher priced Wilson sound worse than cheapest. First off they do not image and keep sound within the box -- all of'em with any amplifier paired. You can only dream about tonal balance... Obviously major brick-mortar store such as Best Buy would not target their customers with the product they wouldn't understand they paid money for.
BAT amp is great.

 @czarivey, that's pretty funny!  I think I understand where you're coming from.  

Repeter.
nycjlee brings up an interesting observation regarding the listening perception of perhaps some musicians. They could in fact be particularly sensitive to speakers/components that they feel deviate from what they recognize/consider a natural sound or tone quality . It seems reasonable their ears could quickly detect what they might interpret as an artificial sound quality.

Just a hunch and certainly not all musicians perceive or hear the same. As nycjlee mentioned though some speakers (components also) do seem to present what some may identify as a more "natural " sound. Maybe the 2 musicians wife’s cited in this thread fit in this particular category of listeners.
Charles