Hello Steve,
" I know Simon likes the BAT gear to with the Spectron and now I see (hear) why"
Indeed, for a long time, REX by BAT was my most favorite preamp.
However, now, I am trying to assist Jud Barber of Joule-Electra to build, that I believe, will be "the best" preamplifier in the world. He builds it in the memory of his late wife Marianne What Jud is trying to achieve is that you will not notice if preamp edgy or not, smooth, showing this or that - only that you will have emotional connection to the music.
When I first time heard the prototype (with pair of Spectron monoblocks) we placed Mozart Requiem and I am rather mature if not old, nor sentimental for sure, person - I felt the tears were coming from my eyes. So at first I was ashamed a bit by showing emotional side of me but later on I understood (again and again) that the true music is all about emotions - you simple do not notice if high are silky or not, if bass is fleshed out etc. What you should have is only feelings and being unable to stop listening to music. Familiar tracks, now grab you and don't let go.
To show this and yet be as much accurate in representation of real acoustic music is the true challenge for the audio designer (the same challenge I had when we moved from standard Musician III (when I joint the company) to Signature and later to Mk2) and its outside of the scope of this thread.
Thank you
Simon