gadawg
Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2017
- Messages
- 187
- Thread Author
- #1
So I’ve been running by BAT REX II Preamp and ML No536 amps for almost 5 years and have really enjoyed it! I finally got the itch however to try an all tube setup and when I found a great deal on a pair of BAT REX II Mono amps I took the dive! Tonight is my first night listening so these are my first impressions …
The REX II amps are much more open sounding on every track I played regardless of type of music. A more holographic soundstage as well though the Levinsons perform well there also. Brushes are softer and more realistic sounding and the piano and Saxes are amazing on the all tube setup. The bottom end is definitely not as aggressive as the Levinson’s but it’s not bad either. I’d say that there is the impression that the Levinson amps will dissect the music and give the impression of more detail and they might be slightly more detailed although the REX’s provide a more wholistic picture of the music which is just as satisfying if not maybe more real sounding. Still I have to say the Levinson’s do extract a bit more detail from some tracks. One area the Levinsons win hands down is in slam and dynamics but it’s not really a fair comparison there … 160 watts on the REX’s at the 4 ohm load of my Wilson Alexx vs the 800 Watt at 4 ohm rating of the No536. Chalk up the win there for the Levinsons. If I stay with the REX’s I’ll likely upgrade to the newest version the REX III and give serious consideration to running 4 of them .. and yes I have dedicated AC for the room. So far the amps haven’t warmed up the room at all.
It does take about a good hour for the BAT amps to really open up and sound great and I suspect that the power tubes are in need of replacement as the previous owner gave me an estimate of around 1800 hours on the 6c33’s so I’ll be ordering a new set of those shortly.
Well … that’s about it for initial impressions. I’ll update over the weekend as I get more time with the amps and start leaning towards deciding which I’ll be keeping and which will move on for now.
George
The REX II amps are much more open sounding on every track I played regardless of type of music. A more holographic soundstage as well though the Levinsons perform well there also. Brushes are softer and more realistic sounding and the piano and Saxes are amazing on the all tube setup. The bottom end is definitely not as aggressive as the Levinson’s but it’s not bad either. I’d say that there is the impression that the Levinson amps will dissect the music and give the impression of more detail and they might be slightly more detailed although the REX’s provide a more wholistic picture of the music which is just as satisfying if not maybe more real sounding. Still I have to say the Levinson’s do extract a bit more detail from some tracks. One area the Levinsons win hands down is in slam and dynamics but it’s not really a fair comparison there … 160 watts on the REX’s at the 4 ohm load of my Wilson Alexx vs the 800 Watt at 4 ohm rating of the No536. Chalk up the win there for the Levinsons. If I stay with the REX’s I’ll likely upgrade to the newest version the REX III and give serious consideration to running 4 of them .. and yes I have dedicated AC for the room. So far the amps haven’t warmed up the room at all.
It does take about a good hour for the BAT amps to really open up and sound great and I suspect that the power tubes are in need of replacement as the previous owner gave me an estimate of around 1800 hours on the 6c33’s so I’ll be ordering a new set of those shortly.
Well … that’s about it for initial impressions. I’ll update over the weekend as I get more time with the amps and start leaning towards deciding which I’ll be keeping and which will move on for now.
George