Is the BAlabo BC-1 MKII Preamp the reigning King?

I would say he is.

It was so revolutionary that nobody is talking about it anymore.

The Halcro stunk. From first listen. Just as many, many other "new king" components are not great (though Halcro is one of the grossest errors in memory). Yet, reviewers followed one after another, just as most audiophiles did, with collective nodding of heads.

The same thing is happening now with certain "hot products". Everyone laughs at the Halcro thing, but that scenario keeps playing itself out over and over again, and is being played out right now.
It means nothing when one big reviewer raves something (Halcro, Blabbo), they often parrot what the first guy said. It's how component reputations are often made.

There are 2 "herd mentality" masses at fault. First, most reviewers who are blinded by bling, designer dogma, pricing, appearance. They do care about being loudest and first. Not so much about being right about something coming close to real music....most don't play or go listen to music.

Then there are the audiophiles, the majority of who listen to the equipment but hear what the reviewer said, not what is being delivered to the brain by their ears.

It's largely a follower industry. An hobby of wanting to beat the friends' systems, but also of wanting to be admired for having the "right" gear. Most just do not listen.

I'm not denigrating posters of this thread, but flame if you want: flamers often are the ones who know there is a ring of truth to the statements that offend them, and that inflames them.

Metralla, thanks and nice summary. The human condition: yes, one must be aware of it, and remember to do things for ourselves, think for ourselves, and resist doing things to be accepted.

It's about the music. Most entered the hobby for that reason. However, most became derailed from that goal when they started reading more and more from the "experts", and it became a different thing. It became about status, envy, prestige, and a chase for anything but the music.

My best advice about equipment: 1. Repeat 50 times everyday, "I know what my ears like to hear more than anyone else".
2. Pick your favorite type of music and search out local concerts, and put as much effort and time into that as you do reading the latest clown who is trying to ape Harry Pearson. You'll appreciate the music more, understand it more, and understand the huge rift that exists between music and this industry. 3. If you go to unamplified concerts (pretty easy to find) resist the temptation to say "my system sounds better". You know that cannot be true. It's like preferring the taste of artificial vanilla to real vanilla, freeze dried coffee to freshly ground very high quality coffee.