BAT VK80i

Demo: BAT VK80i Balanced Audio Technology VK80i Integrated Amplifier with all the belonging tools.

Condition: Like New

Review:

It all came together for me on a wonderful recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major with Itzhak Perlman and Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There is no shortage of great performances of this work, as I discovered through Qobuz streaming, but this 1976 recording at Chicago’s Medinah Temple stands out in my mind as locking in the right tempo and capturing the epic sweep of this work most perfectly. The BAT proved adept at portraying a transparent and believable impression of space while also capturing tonal colors with admirable fidelity.
The BAT was free from the usual tube-amplification colorations. There was none of the excessive second-order harmonic richness exhibited by so many single-ended triode amps (SET). Its overall presentation was neutral, sounding like the real thing with believable tonal color saturation and without much editorializing. Neither was it overly soft sounding like so many bandwidth-limited SETs. But its tube origins were unmistakable when it came to soundstage dimensionality. And it could sound deliciously sweet when the music demanded it.

I was recently reunited with the Audiostatic ES-240 electrostatics, speakers that I had lived with during the early 1980s. Richard J. Sabella reviewed the ES-240 in the December 1981 issue of TAS and struggled to make them image properly in his small room. That was not a problem in my much bigger listening space. The catch is that they’re extremely inefficient, and should ideally be driven by a high-power amp in the 200Wpc range, but I thought I would give the BAT a try. Output levels were limited, but I was surprised by how sweet the BAT sounded in the context of a difficult load.

Next in line for the BAT was the Innersound Isis 3.5 electrostatic hybrid, one of the most cohesive hybrids I’ve ever auditioned, and a challenging capacitive load in the treble range. Hooked up to the Low impedance taps, the Innersound Isis sang sweetly with superb timbre fidelity. And soundstage transparency was spectacular. The BAT seemed totally unfazed by this load and coaxed plenty of dynamics from a speaker that usually requires solid-state muscle amplification

Kudos to the BAT team for launching the all-tube VK80i. It is above all else a superb demonstration of triode power. If you’ve been mired in an audio rut, living with a cookie-cutter push-pull beam power or pentode amp, listen up. Sonic happiness in a glass bottle is within reach. You owe it to yourself to audition the VK80i. You’ll discover as I did that there is no turning back.

Specs:
Output power: 55Wpc into 8- and 4-ohm loads
THD at full power: 3%
Frequency bandwidth: 8Hz–200kHz
Tube complement: 4x 6SN7, 4x 6C33C-B
Input sensitivity: 1.3 V
Input impedance: 100k ohms (1kHz)
Inputs: 1x XLR, 3x RCA
Volume control: Resistive ladder, 90-steps, 1dB per step
Dimensions: 17″ x 8″ x 16″
Weight: 45 lbs.

Website: https://balancedaudio.net/integrated-amplifiers