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Is the BAlabo BC-1 MKII Preamp the reigning King?

Tube vs. Solid State...Tube vs. Solid State...Zzzzzzzzzz...
Those days are over. Several years ago both Robert Harley and Jonathan Valin reviewed and Amp and Preamp from a company out of Scotts Valley, CA. called BAlabo, (Bridge Audio Laboratory}. After extended listening sessions Harley and Valin concluded that the BAlabo BC-1 MKII Preamp and the BP-1 MKII amp are the worlds finest sounding products
and what they heard was the greatest listening experience of their entire careers. They concluded that their is no tube or solid state product anywhere on planet earth that even comes close to the performance level of these products.
Tubes have that special liquid, lush, blooming midrange and the BAlabo does all tubes will do but on a much higher, superior level from their solid state designs. Curious if any Philes out there own or have experienced these products.
audiozen
goldeneraguy
442 posts
 
Rsf507 Are you privy to such industy stories ???
kiddman
341 posts
 
I would say he is.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Both lost their hearing a long time ago.
audiozen OP
831 posts
 
Greg Weaver, Senior Editor of Positive Feedback, also is on record stating that the BALabo Kit is the best sound he has ever heard and gave BALabo the Positive
Feedback Best Sound of Show Award at CES 2013. Digging further on the net regarding the amp and preamp, one word keeps popping up more than any other, Liquid! It appears by all those who have heard the BALabo separates that they all come to the same conclusion, that no other solid state component on the planet, regardless of price, can even come close to the supreme liquidity that BALabo portrays, equal to, if not better, than the finest tube separates in the world. Looking at the interior of their BC-1 preamp on their website is stunning. Four large attenuators, each in a
separate copper enclosure, integrated onto a long turn shaft. Top class, tier one component. They probably are King of the Mountain. Their Amp, Preamp and DAC together as a system cost $ 177,000.00. Phew!
larryi
3,970 posts
 
Declaring something is the "best ever," only to be surpassed by another "best ever" in the next issue is the modus operandi of Absolute Sound. I believe subsequent best linestages that followed included gear from Soulution and Constellation, and who knows what else.

I have not heard the BALabo gear. I would bet that it sounds nice, but, whether it does or does not obliterate the difference between tube and solid state is an issue I always find dubious. I have never heard solid state gear that quite had the same natural sounding initial attack and subsequent decay of the notes. On the other hand, tube gear that can deliver a lot of power and can control bass like the best solid state gear usually do not sound as good on initial attack and decay as lower powered tube gear, so one really cannot have everything. As for warm vs. lean, I hardly think this is a solid state v. tube issue. For example, I can hardly think of ANY top solid state gear that is nearly as lean and analytical sounding as Audio Research tube/hybrid gear.
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