BAT VK-5i with Pass Labs X250

Hello. I ran a X250.5 with a Vk5i. It was a great combo. Midband to die for. Great resolve and frequency extension. This was with dying output caps on the vk5i (leakage). I replaced the output caps with Mundorf M supreme somethings and it was incredible. I eventually moved on b/c the preamp was pretty quirky; Random noises and other issues got annoying. But the comboo into dynaudio s3.4 with an SA11 front end was every bit as liquid, stirring, and musically involving as one could wish for, within the budget of course.
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A friend had the Vk51se into his pass x250.5 and funny enough had the same "random noises" and "strange behaviour". It turned out that his cables, i forget which, must have been pretty high capacitance types. When he swapped those out to something like Blue Jeans XLR, the noise totally went away...I think these issues are related to the zero feedback (open loop) pre-amplifier design.

To this day though, the vk5i and x250.5 for me produced a glorious result. Depending on your speaker sensitivity you might find the low end of the volume range annoying (can't quite get it quiet enough for late night).

I used to have a VK5i and tried it with a buddies X250. No problems whatsoever. Personally I didn't care for the 250 overall because it was too transparent or sterile for my speakers/tastes. The bass was to die for :) The VK5i given my budget was the best preamp I have owned. Very nice midrange and extension.

Thanks guys. The VK5i is playing in my system and it is producing beautiful sound through my Gallo's.

So far have not heard anything that could be considered weird noises. I am using MIT S3 interconnects.