Balanced Audio Technology phono preamp VK-P80

I Have owned my Manely Labs Chinook for quite sometime, It is very hard to beat, I have tried the BAT preamp and for me and my system the sound is very dry in the midrange and dominating bass drive ( a little too pronounced) and the uppers are not extremely extended, all in all I was dissappointed in the BAT sound I wanted to like it too. Nothing beats the Manely Labs Chinook in the 2K-2.5k range, you’d have to cough up $5k to get better sound. IMO. The 6922 tubes it uses are THE tubes for great vinyl sound. 

Matt M

P.S. I find the Prima Luna Pre amps to sound very warm and rich and velvety smooth. I would look to demo some different Pre amps , your Chinook phono stage is not holding you back. 

The Chinook and my Steelhead, can only develop sufficient gain for vinyl by incorporating a transistor in the signal path, along with the 6922. They did a good job of it, and that is why both units are so good. They probably could have used one or two other tube types with similar mu, transconductance, and plate resistance (other high transconductance/medium mu/low plate resistance dual section triodes) to the same end. 6922s are plentiful which makes it a good choice.

FWIW, I had a VK-P10 for a while a long time ago.  I didn't particularly like it and replaced it with a steelhead 1.5, which in my system to my ears significantly bested the P10.  I still own the steelhead.

There is nothing like auditioning a potential new component in your own system before dropping your cash.

My system is built around BAT components.  I'm a fan of their products. In my system, I get great holographic playback.  I've an older VK-P5 w/superpak that's slated to be recapped and ungraded to the max.  You need to ensure that it works in your system, like any component, let you ears determine if it a good fit.  Auditioning is the best approach.  

There one for $2900 here:  https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=bat+vk+p80

That's a very good price. 

My friend and I both bought new ones of the VK-P80 last year, I am using mine with a VPI table, so is he but he also has a TTW table that he uses it with. We both believe that it is a very good phono stage, is dead quiet, has great top, mids and bottom and is built like a tank. Started looking into tubes and they are not that crazy expensive, when re-tubing comes around. Only minor quibble would be that the dB level for the MC portion is only 58-60 dB, you just have to turn your volume up a bit more with some MC cartridges.