Get Inspired by What You Love: American-Made BAT VK-85 Preamplifier Plays with Ultra-Low Noise Floor and High-Current Operation, Features Purist-Based Design and Unistage Topology

Deepen your connections to the artists you love and the songs that inspire you with the Balanced Audio Technology VK-85 solid-state preamplifier. Independent of its advanced engineering, premium internal components, and robust American-made build quality, the most convincing reason to put the 40-pound VK-85 in your system as the command center linking everything together relates to what it does for your dedicated appreciation for and emotional relationship to music. 

The revealing nuances, the warm expressions, the massive dynamic swings, the rich tones, the distinctive textures, the physical details, the faithful perspectives, the replication of the recording space: VK-85 makes these critical aspects come alive and renders them with an openness, directness, and naturalism that grabs you, moves you, and involves you. It combines such invigorating performance with the connectivity you need.

Three pairs of XLR inputs, two pairs of RCA inputs, two XLR outputs, and a tape out combine with ultra-quiet operation to help give your associated equipment the poise and fluidity your record collection demands. In addition to a supplied remote control, a proprietary shunt volume control with 140 steps of 0.5dB resolution for the ultimate in continuous adjustments ensures your ears will love what they hear. It also means that vocalists and instrumentalists alike are presented with proper scale. 

Per BAT tradition, the fully balanced VK-85 teems with cutting-edge technology and purist approaches done for logical reasons. Symmetrical Unistage topology, transformer-coupled outputs, and a fourth-generation SuperPak (SuperPak Quattro) that provides four levels of filtration work in concert to bestow the 5.75 x 19 x 15.5-inch (HWD) VK-85 with a nearly inaudible noise floor, terrific speed, and high-current capability. Read more about the specifics below or reach out to a Music Direct audio consultant at 312-433-0200 for deeper insight into BAT’s processes. 

Just as importantly, think about how much you enjoy experiencing music when reproduced at a level that nears or equals what you’d witness in a studio or on a stage. Consider what those encounters do for your well-being, outlook, and soul. Then rest assured that these are the very aims VK-85 will help deliver. 

Unistage Design
Simplicity of design, especially in the direct signal path, remains a hallmark of Balanced Audio Technology’s purist approach to circuit topology. The signal in VK-85 is transmitted through only one gain stage, one free from the negative artifacts attributable to both extremes of modern preamplifier design: passive preamplifiers and multi-stage buffered active circuits. BAT’s trademarked Unistage circuit provides the ultimate simplicity of amplifying the incoming signal just once while using no global feedback to double-back on the integrity of that signal.

N-Channel MOSFET Circuit
The VK-85 circuit is based on N-Channel MOSFET devices. Solid-state designs customarily use complementary N- and P-Channel devices in the gain stage. Such configurations are easier to build but suffer from an important drawback: P-Channel devices are inherently inferior to their brethren because they are much slower. In VK-85, both sides of the waveform are handled by identical devices – in identical circuit configuration – assuring symmetry of the resulting signal.

Second-Gen Transformer-Coupled Outputs
VK-85 joins every BAT preamplifier model in featuring transformer-coupled outputs. While capacitors and transformers can each perform the task of DC decoupling, in many cases, the transformer can be designed closer to the ideal device model. This benefit is not easy to achieve. Designing a linear, close-to-ideal transformer is often difficult. Some applications are more suitable for transformers than others. And premium transformers cost good money. All of which is why great transformers are relatively uncommon in high-end audio.

SuperPak Quattro
The power supply in VK-85 incorporates the same fourth-generation SuperPak (SuperPak Quattro) used in BAT’s REX 300 power amplifier. In addition to providing four levels of filtration, it is connected in a new manner that dramatically lowers the preamplifier’s overall noise floor. Its parts include premium silver foil/oil capacitors to improve harmonic accuracy — and go far beyond the red chiclet-style caps found in most power supply bypasses.

Fully Balanced 
The advantages of a balanced approach to circuit design go beyond signal transmission. They include fundamental aspects like the interaction between the power supply and its gain stage. Though the sonic contribution of the power supply can prove overwhelming in a single-ended design, it is less of a concern in a balanced circuit. As the circuit becomes more symmetrical, the residual effect of the power supply becomes less intrusive.The demand on the power supply is reduced, making it easier to create a balanced circuit that conforms more closely to the engineering ideal.

Proprietary Volume Control
VK-85 employs a proprietary electronic shunt volume attenuator with 140 steps of 0.5dB resolution. One Vishay bulk foil resistor – the most precise and thermally stable resistor available – per phase is all that’s in the signal path. In addition, discrete metal film resistors bleed the unused signal to ground.