Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/bat-vk-90-tube-preamp

It was the Antonio Forcione Quartet’s In Concert live set [Naim Label, 44.1kHz/24-bit] that really sold me on BAT’s preamp. This album encourages a close listen, as the guitarist – accompanied by cello, percussion, bass and flute – explores various textures and rhythms within the acoustic of Tunbridge Wells’ Trinity Theatre. The VK-90 appeared to sweep nothing under the carpet in terms of detail, shining a light on Forcione’s slick guitar playing in the languid ‘Heart Beat’, and conveying the force of Adriano Adewale’s snare drum hits in the jazzier ‘Attempo’.

These pieces sounded effortlessly musical, aided by a spacious soundstage. Yet when Rebecca Pidgeon’s ‘Underwater Boys’, from Sudden Exposure To Light [Toy Canteen Records], required the opposite, being music with a tightly focused image, BAT’s VK-90 followed suit. Here was a precise, punchy presentation, with Pidgeon’s vocals, complete with odd ‘underwater’ effect, pushed forward of insouciant-sounding piano and keyboards.

https://www.hifichoice.com/content/quad-33303-2024

Forget everything you know about the sound of the original 33/303. Playing old-and-new side-by-side, the Sixties pairing still sounds wonderfully warm, but lacks the ultimate precision, bass control and extension at the frequency extremes. Consider what Peter Walker unleashed in 1967, and you accept that these were voiced first and foremost for the Quad 57 ESL – their most likely partner. The new 33/303 has to face a world of lower impedance if typically higher sensitivity speakers to succeed.

And, wow, do they ever! We try out speakers from 4-15ohm impedance and 85dB-93dB sensitivity and power is never an issue. Adding a second 303 changes not just the dynamics due to the added wattage, but audibly tightens up the lower registers. All remarks from here on refer to a single 303 running in balanced mode, with the 33 in its tone-off position.

Appropriately, the first music sampled comes from a mono 1964 LP. The Animals’ eponymous debut is, for many, preferred in that mode, House Of The Rising Sun probably heard by more people over AM radio than off vinyl. Via the 33’s MC phono stage, the sound is crisp, with plenty of ‘twang’ on the guitars, while the two star elements – Alan Price’s Vox Continental organ and Eric Burdon’s achingly raw, inimitable vocals – are afforded a tactile presence you’d probably expect of a pairing with a zero added to the price.

https://pt.audio/2025/07/18/yg-acoustics-carmel-3-loudspeakers-review/

Jerome Sabbagh’s Heart has also become an important demo disc for me because it crawls so far into the music or, more accurately, the making of the music. Al Foster’s drumming, in particular, is unusually up-close and personal, especially the way in which he manipulates his cymbals and hi-hat through physical manipulation–it’s evocative of Shelly Manne in its range of unique sounds. Through the Carmel 3s I had the consistent impression that Foster was flanking me, to my right, so close that I could reach out and pat him on the back. We all talk about recordings where the performers feel like they’re in the room with you, but I had more of a feeling that I was up on stage with this gifted trio, trying to keep up with all the magic.