The Sound of Musical Truth
The Balanced Audio Technology VK-90t power amplifier features a fuse-less protection circuit, active current sources for its two gain stages, intelligent auto-bias circuit with LED indicators, and high-current, all-triode, zero-feedback, fully balanced topology. Its 25th anniversary industrial design is complemented by new, silver-gold oil capacitors and ultra-transparent internal wiring in the signal path. With VK-90t, BAT realizes that serious listeners want unique technology, user-friendly experiences, and faithful-to-the-source sonics in high-end equipment. The equivalent of having two single-ended amplifiers per channel, VK-90t meets these demands and more—and sounds mesmerizing minutes after being turned on. VK-90t also means there are no tubes to bias; no fuses to replace; no pentodes imitating triodes; and no direct current at the tube output stage. VK-90t is the sound of the future—and musical truth.
VK-90t extends the advantages of active current sources by including these in both the first and second gain stages of the circuit design. There are multiple benefits to implementing active current sources (solid-state as well as tube) for the first two stages. Specifically, the linearity of the gain stages improves; the adjustments for the first and second gain stages become independent and more easily optimized; and the active source components operate at lower stress level, improving reliability. The final result is an impressive improvement in the linearity, yielding a more accurate representation of the output signal to the original input signal. And that, in essence, is the measure of any amplifier.
Fully Symmetrical, All-Triode Circuit Banishes Conventional Drawbacks
In a world of cookie-cutter pentode/tetrode designs and frail single-ended counterparts, VK-90t stands apart. Its design is fully symmetrical from beginning to end. You can think of it as having two single-ended amplifiers per channel, with their waveforms summed at the output transformer. Since no direct current flows through the output transformer, the latter is a true wide bandwidth design that also reduces low-frequency distortion. When you combine VK-90t’s fully symmetrical circuit with its high-current, all-triode, zero-feedback, fully balanced topology, all of the drawbacks of push-pull and single-ended amplifiers are banished.