BAT problem lingers

It's been 16 days since I shipped my right channel from the VK500 off to BAT. On their site service page they proudly declare that repairs take priority and the longest any customer has been without their amp is 15 days....well, I guess I broke the record. So far, my two requests for info have fallen on deaf ears.....

BAT VK500 problemo, part 2

Well, I followed the multi-step instructions, removed some two dozen torx screws, disconnected three sets of wires and eventually lifted out one whole side of the VK500, heatsinks included, which I shipped off to BAT this week. I'll post pics when I get a chance but it was actually fun to play around with the innards and not too difficult either (though ask me again when I try to put it all back together again). BAT have pretty clear (but not totally clear) instructions on this, and I was expecting just a circuit board to come out, not the whole side. Victor tells me it may cost 'little or a bit more' to fix this, so stay tuned.

Amp thoughts

What has Naim Nait 2 got in common with a BAT VK500, PA Audio GCP-200 with external power supply and a PS Audio GCPH phono stage? Both set ups amplify CD and turntable signals in my system. What are the differences?

Naim cost less than $1k a few years back,
it weighs less than 10lbs,
is half-sized.

The other set up costs $10k,
tops the scales at >150lbs,
takes up 4 boxes, one of which will not fit on a rack

Forgetting the extra cables you need to run the separates, is there 10 times the difference in sound quality? Hum........

Deal of the Year

Harmonia Mundi's 50th anniversary box set release was lauded in December's TAS, and rightly so. At $100 it offered 29 cds of top quality music through the ages, and mostly excellent sounding too, as one would expect from this label. Well, if you held off, now's the time as Amazon, among others, are selling the set for a knock down $79. That's a little over $2.50 per disk. I have no idea how anyone makes any money on this but you get a musical education for next to nothing.

BAT VK500 problemo

I woke up the other night to a persistent buzzing and scratching in the right channel. After much back and forth with cable changing and channel switching, I fired off an email to Victor at BAT who agreed, after a while, that it likely was the right channel of my amp that was acting up. Since the whole component weighs upward of 100lbs, we agreed that shipping was not ideal so I am about to embark on channel removal with a Torx driver. Stay tuned.