McCormack vs. BAT


Hello, I am considering a new amp, a McCormack DNA-250 or a BAT-vk 250, can anyone compare the two or offer a better option? Thank you.
tswisla
When you say that you need a little more power in the mid and treb, I'm not sure as to what you mean. Your A21 should be very powerful. Are you talking actual power from the amp or, possibly, power in relation to sound quality?
If what your looking for is more weight and texture from the midrange down through the bass, the BAT will give you what you looking for. You can also get this by just adding one of there preamps to your system and keeping the amp you have.
I had the JC-1s and (in my system) they were a little thin to me. When adding the BAT VK-31se it put some body to the system that was missing.
Ton Hankins makes a good point. Personally, I've always felt that the preamp is more important to get right than the amp. That's why I asked about the "power" issue as a matter of actual power or power in terms of sound quality. Given that your current amp should have more than enough power, epically with the JM Labs being very efficient, I take it you mean the latter of the 2 types.

With regards to picking an amp, I've owned a dna250 and have listened to the BAT on many ocassions, but never owned one. They are both excellent and if I were to pick just from these 2 I would get the BAT. If you have listened to both, and like the dna250 better, I would recommend something different. I felt the dna's biggest strength was in the midrange. It was very pure, clean and detailed. I thought the highs and lows were just OK but not great. In your used price range, you should be able to pick up an Ayre V5 used. This is what I currently use. Sound wise, it picks up where the dna leaves off and takes everything to a different level. It improves on the excellent mids of the dna but also brings the frequency extremes to the same level of quality of the mids. For me, its an amazing amp. For you, I would definately encourage you to listen to it first. Don't buy it just because I like it, you have to like it.

Since you mentioned the BAT, I thought of another approach you may like. BAT makes a great integrated that combines a solid state amp with your choice of a solid state preamp or 2 different tube preamps. They also offer a phono stage as well. You save money by putting 3 components in 1 box, don't have to deal with all the cables and have the piece of mind that all 3 things will work well together. You will even have the option of using another source such as a CD player, that you don't have now with your current system.