Audphile 1 said, "you doubt the group of people who offered their opinion that contradicted with what you READ in the forums." Well, so what? There are others here who don't agree with your group.
Elberoth1 has a very expensive and sophisticated system, so I give credence to his opinion. He sold his VK51SE. I respect others' opinions too. Just trying to sort it out.
Flying to a BAT dealer to audition? I don't think so. Besides, I've auditioned components at dealers where they sounded dreadful, and the component was a good sounding component. Many dealers don't know good sound, unfortunately.
Perhaps those posters who think the oil caps are the culprits are correct. I know there were some who didn't like the Jensen oil caps used by Cary and preferred the non-oil (I believe it was Hovland) caps. Those caps are BAT's thing, though, and I certainly wouldn't buy a preamp and change out the caps, reducing its resaleability in half.
Elberoth1 has a very expensive and sophisticated system, so I give credence to his opinion. He sold his VK51SE. I respect others' opinions too. Just trying to sort it out.
Flying to a BAT dealer to audition? I don't think so. Besides, I've auditioned components at dealers where they sounded dreadful, and the component was a good sounding component. Many dealers don't know good sound, unfortunately.
Perhaps those posters who think the oil caps are the culprits are correct. I know there were some who didn't like the Jensen oil caps used by Cary and preferred the non-oil (I believe it was Hovland) caps. Those caps are BAT's thing, though, and I certainly wouldn't buy a preamp and change out the caps, reducing its resaleability in half.