Bat vk31se and vk120 vs Simaudio I-7

Thanks Trcnetmsncom,

It’s definitely not going to be easy to upgrade from the BATS. Ultimately, I don’t know if I will. So far, they sounded like 'cleaning dust from the instruments' compared to anything else I tried at home (compared to SS only thus far). Very musical amps. Perhaps going up the BAT preamp line is the best way to go in the future but I am still hoping for a cheaper alternative :). I want to look into cabling and room treatments before doing anything else. My room may be too live. I think I prefer a dead room with higher resolution and base response. I plan on adding a few panels at time, staring from the front...

Dawgcatcher - Sounds exciting. Wish you luck and look forward to your observations...Thanks.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to draw comparisons to your BAT separates, but will borrow my friend's ARC separates as well for a head-to-head in my system.

I have put the Karan I-180 (the newest version) into my system, running it against the ARC LS26 and SD135 combo on loan from a dealer, as well as my McCormack DNA-125 Gold and Dehavilland preamp combo. I picked it up for a demo based solely on recommendations from people I trust, which is probably how most people find out about them. This is definitely an integrated that you should check out. The Karan was both more detailed (I am hearing tons of things in the music that were never there before)and more "tubey/musical" sounding than either of the solid state amp-tube preamp combos. The McCormack and Dehavilland were bettered slightly by the ARC combo (more detail, sound is a little less lush and more accurate) but the Karan goes way beyond either of these: it has better control of the speakers, more accurate bass, more natural, and really shows off good recordings vs. mediocre ones. I have had some pretty nice separates in here for demo recently (Herron separates, Classe CP-700 mated with the McCormack) and they each beat my setup by a small margin, but the Karan is in a whole different league. They are tough to find though. Now, I just need to get my wife to let me keep it.....

Thanks for the update Dawgcatching. Sounds like you found a winner! (Good luck with you wife). Definitely something to look into. I wonder how the aforementioned equipment would all compare with the BATs..

BTW, I moved my speakers apart by a foot and the sound became much richer and deeper (I had done it before and had not noticed - perhaps something else also changed) - no idea that '1 foot' would make such a difference. I have become very content with the BATS over the last couple of days. - Can’t wait to listen again.

Great! Also try tuning your room, if you haven't already. In my room, that was by far the biggest bang for the $. I listened to a system that retailed at $40,000 today at a dealer (Dynaduio C-2 speakers), and it couldn't hold my system's jock strap, so to speak. The reason was they had no acoustic tuning whatsoever. It sounded thin and tinny: I have no idea how they sell anything with it sounding like that.