Balanced Audio VK-42 se (Black)

Hi and thanks for looking! 
This ad is for a pristine VK-42SE solid-state stereo preamplifier in Black. The VK-42SE is a fully balanced preamp, loaded with features, incredibly flexible and yet very easy to use. I am the sole owner and I purchased it brand new. This VK-42SE preamp ships complete with remote, remote wrench, extra fuse, extra screws, manual and power cord. The shipping box and packing materials are brand-new, shipped direct from the factory at the end of October 2016.

The VK-42SE is BAT's top-line solid state preamp and it is wonderful! Warm and gloriously rich with outstanding resolution and excellent dynamics. The capacitor coupled output (featuring a Six-Pak of Jensen capacitors per channel) delivers excellent grip and control and the VK-42SE handles long run of interconnects and low impedance power amps with ease. Noise is vanishingly low, dynamic range exceedingly high; imaging, soundstaging and resolution are all top grade. Sonically, the VK-42SE shares a lot of sonic characteristics with its valved cousins; it is airy, spacious, digs deep into every recording and offers near unlimited dynamic range. However, it doesn't run hot and there are no tubes to replace on a periodic basis, making the VK-42SE the best of both worlds!

Construction: Fully balanced as well as fully dual-mono from input to output (including dual Plitron power transformers) the VK-42SE is impressively well constructed; thick aluminum faceplate, heavy steel chassis, high quality components throughout and massive power supplies. Even the thick rubber feet are affixed to the chassis with large allen bolts. It's this attention to detail which separates BAT's engineering from others. The most impressive bit of tech is the VK-42SE's stepped, resistive, ladder-array volume control (the same one used in BAT's Flagship REX Preamp). This volume control is incredibly cool; every single one of the 140 steps on the volume control is actually a different combination of high-quality resistors. This means that at every single volume setting the VK-42SE is maintaining a precise impedance level across all SIX poles of the balanced circuit. Yes, six. On an unbalanced preamp, there's only three poles, Left, Right and Ground. However in a balanced dual-mono preamp, there's a positive, a negative and a neutral for each channel, This is why so few stereo preamps are actually fully balanced from end to end; it's incredibly expensive to do it right. The results are remarkable; channel separation is excellent, the channel to channel balance is incredibly tight, there's no "channel push" at low volumes and the tonal balance doesn't shift around depending on where the volume is set. Plus, the noise level at every single setting is vanishingly low. State of the art? Indeed. The VK-42SE is truly a reference level preamp.

Feature Set: Starting with the mundane but necessary, on the input side, the VK-42SE has two pairs of chassis-mount RCAs as well as three pairs of Neutrik XLR inputs. On the output side, the VK-42SE features two pairs of Neutrik XLR outputs, which may be run simultaneously. A tape loop line-level out is also provided for convenience, I used it to add a headphone amp for late night listening. The VK-42SE also has the ability to do some pretty amazing things for an all-analog preamp: Soft-Start power on, Phase switch, Mono switch, front panel direct input selection, Balance Control, Relative Volume setting (where one source is louder or softer than the others), Max volume setting (leaving the kids home alone?), Fixed Volume (mostly used for H/T bypass, this can be set on a per input basis) and the ability to rename each of the inputs.  

At the asking price, I will pay for FedEx Ground or Home Delivery shipping within the CONUS. Shipping outside the US? Please contact me for a ship-quote.