Pre/Power Amplifiers

Although BAT’s first solid-state power amplifier was the VK-500 model of 1996, the 2023 debut of the REX 500 [pictured below] also broke new ground, being the first such design to appear in the manufacturer’s flagship REX tier. Befitting its lofty status, this ‘heavily biased Class A/B’ amp (in the words of engineer Victor Khomenko) promised a 2x500W output from its arrangement of 12 N-channel transistors per side – a figure comfortably met in PM’s Lab tests [HFN Feb ’24] which also revealed an initial 50W running in Class A. The price paid for that high bias current is running temperatures up to 65oC after a couple of hours ‘idle’.

When HFN spoke to Khomenko after the REX 500’s launch, he also divulged that he was working on a smaller sibling model. BAT has since announced the REX 300, which echoes the bigger amp’s N-channel FET topology, albeit without separate PSU transformers and AC inlets for each channel. It also introduces a fourth-generation ‘SuperPak Quattro’ PSU, and is described as ‘essentially a lower powered version’ of the REX 500.