BAT VK-200 vs VK-220?

Samzx,

What a small world we live in agon! You mate VK-200 with VK-5i? How did you come back to VK200?
Have you tried other preamp than VK-5i? .

I will have VK-200 soon. I have Rogue Magnum 99. I will see how well BAT works with Rogue.

I thought about VK-220, but I was not sure whether it was worthwhile to pay for extra $500 to get VK-220. VK-220 is newer, but I am not sure about the power difference. I emailed VK and he responded that VK-200 meaures more like 125WPC. Other than newer circuit and design than VK-200, it may be hard to tell that VK-220 is sonically superior to VK-200, that was my feeling. Hope somebody correct me if I am wrong.

Also, I could not find any reviews that directly compares VK-220 to VK-200.

Yep small world ;)

I have tried various Levinson amps. 27, 27.5, 29, 331, 331.5. For some reason I came back to the 200 because it is a classic and just sounds good to my ears. It does sound like it puts out more than 100 wpc and overall the sonics are smooth, powerful, and detailed. Compared to the ML amps, the bass is deeper and the soundstage is wider. The ML amps seem to be more analytical or neutral which is not a bad thing. The ML amps had better center fill where as the BAT was broader in comparsion. IMO the ML amps have better midbass punch and are built like a tank. They are a pleasure to own and look at but for overall musicality I like the BAT amps. This is not saying the ML amps are bad because they are very very good. I just preferred the BAT in my system.

As far as Preamps the VK5i was the best match. It makes sense and I used NOS tubes. One of the best improvements was to replace the 5881 tubes with TungSol. This was the most noticeable sonic upgrade with this preamp. Replacing the eight 6922 tubes were another improvement but the TungSols were more noticeable IMO. The 6922 replacements I used were Matsushida 6DJ8's. Hope this helps.

What speakers do you have and what kind of sound are you looking for? The Rogue is a good preamp. Does it have XLR? Remember the BAT is XLR. If you dont have XLR you will have to get adaptors if the amp does not come with them.

Hope this helps.

Sam

Rogue Magnum does not support balanced. The BAT I will have comes with RCA adapters. I read about that BAT amp works best with balanced preamps, but I also read that it would work good with other preamps. I bought BAT with the mind to replace Rogue in the near future. But if it works real good with Rogue I may keep it for a while.
My speaker is Tyler Linbrook Signature Systems. I have Linn AV5105, which is not bad, but with continual upgrades, I think I came to a point that Linn is outmatched and it is time to go.
I mostly listen to jazz, blues, and classicals, and ocasionally others -- hard/metal, rock, folk, country, new age, easy listening, ...

Ihcho which Signature system do you have? Ty custom built my previous speaker (Signature) and it had the 10" SEAS bass driver. Does yours have the 8" driver? I sold mine this past year and went with the new Decade line.

Rogue and BAT should go well with Ty's speakers. If not, then proceed with plan :)

It is a usual one piece LSS with 8" driver. Rogue says that Magnum 99 would work well with either balanced or unbalanced amp, so I hope it would work good with vk-200.

It would be hard to find a preamp that would surpass Magnum 99 at similar price. Bat VK-5i may be an option, as yours, but I am not sure VK-5i would make sonic improvement over Magnum 99, which I may need to explore later. Gee, then I almost get the same system as yours? Tyler speaker, BAT vk-200/vk-5? I have Arcam FMJ CD23. What do you have?