BAT VK-200, Plinius SA100 MK3, or Levinson 27.5?


Which of these amps would you Audiogoners prefer? I have a BAT VK5i tube preamp and Tyler Acoustic reference speakers. I know system synergy is important but mixing is fun also.

Sam
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I am pretty sure the Plinius is not truly balanced, so with that pre amp I would look into the other two. I am not familar with the levinson but that model sounds like it hasn't been made in a while. Come to think of it all of those choices I believe are no longer being produced. I have had great luck with BAT, in particular if you have a good truly balanced preamp, you would get better results using a truly balanced amp.
I owned the Levinson 27.5 and it is an outstanding amp.
Dynamic, spacious, excellent imaging, no harshness.
I sold it only to buy a Levinson 335 because I needed
more power. Many consider the 27.5 one of the best amps
ever made by Madrigal.
The BAT is slightly dark-sounding, hard to describe but not as airy or sparkling as most amps. A great choice if your speakers or upstream components sound a little too bright. The ML 27.5 is a great amp and thought by many to be superior to their newer stuff. ML's seem to err a little to the "refined" side of things to my ears, almost too smooth. But again, many people love them for just that reason. YMMV.
What speakers and source components do you use? You need to match the candidate amp with the efficiency and characteristic of the speakers. For example, I had a pair of Dynaudio Contour 1.8 speakers and the BAT VK-200 was not powerful enough to drive it.
My source is a Proceed CDD transport mated to a Levinson #36 dac and Cardas Quadlink cabling. My speakers are Tyler Acoustic reference system. They are a new line by Ty consisting of SEAS 10" and 7" bass and midrange drivers and a Scanspeak Revelator tweeter. I just retubed my preamp with NOS Type 2 tubes from Kevin at Upscale Audio.

Sam