Balanced Audio Technology REX 3 Tube DAC
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 41 – Balanced Audio Technology REX 3 Tube DAC
Introduction – I’m pretty sure the acronym DAC would never have crossed Frodo’s mind at any time so how is it possible for me to link an American high end audio manufacturer of amplifiers and Digital to Analogue Converters to The Lord of the Rings? Well bear with me here, Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) is based in Wilmington, Delaware where the Christina River meets the Brandywine River which of course also runs through the Shire – who would have thought it!
On a more serious note, BAT have been in business since the mid 90’s and as their name suggests they very much favour balanced circuits in all their products, most of which (but not all) feature Valves or if you prefer, vacuum tubes.
Their amplifiers have always been well regarded by the audio press and by their increasingly loyal customer base and I thought it would be a good idea to check out their Rex Tube DAC now in MK3 status to see how it compares with other £20,000 + DACs that I have reviewed. BAT have three ranges of products in their current portfolio namely: 80 Series, 90 Series and REX 3 series to which they also give the monikers ‘Beautiful’, ‘Extraordinary’ and ‘Live’ respectively. At the time of writing this review, January 2022, the retail price of the REX 3 Tube DAC is £22,000 and as such is one of the most expensive pure DACs I have reviewed although to be fair most of the others also provide streaming and/or preamp facilities whereas the REX 3 is, thankfully, just a DAC. They currently list in their portfolio 3 preamps, 4 valve power amps, 2 solid state power amps, 2 integrated amps, 2 phono stages and just this one DAC, so quite an extensive range.
Technology – Earlier versions of the REX DAC could have SuperPak capacitors specified as an optional extra, but the REX 3 now comes with the SuperPak as standard. It includes 12 capacitors all of which are larger than you will find in most power amplifiers, 2 of them are dedicated to the PSU and the other 10 feed the transformer coupled outputs. The REX 3 also included a compliment of six 6C19 valves, two for the PSU and 4 in the output stage. There are no capacitors in the signal path, and this is a zero-feedback device which has no user selectable filters.
There is no getting away with it, this is a large device, larger than most integrated amps at 483mm x 146mm hx 394mm (WHD) and weighing in at 16.3kg. It also runs hot so it needs lots of air around it and it stays hot even when in standby mode when it still consumes 127w of energy because most of the circuit and especially the valves remain pretty much powered up. These days any European manufacturer wouldn’t get away with this level of standby consumption and most such products including power amps consume less than 1w in standby mode. However, a long press of the standby button on the front panels shuts it down completely, saving energy but then requiring a longer warm up period nest time.
The front panel has a large display giving input number selected, input name (user configurable) and bit rate in large blue text, big enough to be seen from afar. It also has three small buttons for Standby, Function and Mute and a further 5 buttons to select any of the 5 inputs, all of which also accessible from the well-made aluminium remote.
The rear panel in line with BAT’s thinking only has XLR balanced outputs, no RCAs to be found here. It has a single AES/EBU digital input on XLR, two RCA and two Toslink SP/DIF inputs and the now ubiquitous USB input.
It accepts data up to 24 bits and 384 kHz on PCM and 4 x DSD (512). Roon finds it without a problem although it’s not fully Roon certified, and it ignores MQA although as with any other DAC it will unfold the first level of MQA files but truncates 192 MQA files to 96kHz. It appears not to use an in-house designed DAC chip as some other manufacturers do but the literature was a bit vague on this point. The digital side is however fully designed in-house by Andreas Koch and the analogue side by Victor K Hemenko both of BAT.
To put the REX 3 DACs valve compliment of 6 in perspective their matching 2 box REX preamp has 18 valves, and the power amp has 14 so if you have all 3 components at home you won’t need radiators in the winter and will need the windows open in the summer, 36 valves generate significant heat.
System Components used in this Review:
Preamp: Gryphon Essence Preamp
Power Amplifier: Gryphon Essence Stereo Power Amp
Digital Sources: Innuos Statement Streamer – Marantz SA-11S3 SACD Player
DAC: BAT REX 3 Tube DAC (used for this Review)
Analogue Sources: Meridian 204 Tuner and Revox B77 MKII Reel to Reel
Streaming Sources: Tidal HiFi and Qobuz Hi-Res – Innuos Statement Hard Drive
Streamer Management: Roon – Innuos Statement acting as Roon Core and Storage
Speakers: Marten Mingus Quintet – with Marten/IsoAcoustic Isolator Feet
Performance – Over the last 18 months since I started this series of reviews around the time of the first lockdown, I have tried many DACs at home for review purposes and a number of them, like the BAT REX 3 retail at more than £20,000 in the UK. There is no denying that this is a lot of money, especially for a DAC when good ones start around the £1,000 mark and can fit in your pocket. But something special seems to start happening when the £20k mark is reached and manufacturers are no longer bound just by price. Of all the equipment I have reviewed to date it is these £20k+ DACs that leave the most lasting impressions and they are the ones I’d most like to own. It seems to me that the DAC, if done right and possible to extremes, is where today’s technology is excelling and where the most improvement can be made to your home audio system, whether streaming or via CD etc. Contact me if you want to know what those other DACs are.
I recently reviewed a pair of Subs in my home system and was left with the feeling that I needed a pair to extract something more from my system in terms of spatial openness and of course bass extension. But then I listened to the REX 3 DAC without the subs, and it was then that I realised I don’t need subs, I need a better DAC. The bass response with the REX 3 DAC in place is something very special, demanding your attention and providing total fulfilment and a desire to just keep listening.
As you can probably already tell, I loved this DAC, sure it’s big, heavy, expensive, runs hot and needs lots of shelf space but it sounds so sumptuous, detailed and inviting without any loss of sparkle and certainly not of the old school when valves gave warmth over accuracy.
Listening via USB – Connecting my Innuos Statement to the REX 3 DAC via USB worked just fine with Roon finding the Rex 3 immediately to allow playback. However, the Rex 3 is not fully Roon certified but playback worked just fine playing all the music stored on the Statement and from files streamed by it from Tidal and Qobuz. ‘If’ by Pink Floyd from Atom Heart Mother (Qobuz 96/24) was a lesson on how to get drawn right into a performance despite it being well over 50 years old. It was smooth, detailed and deep with vocal purity and feeling. Playing ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac (Qobuz 96/24) and the REX 3 brings amazing dynamic power to play, filling the room with music that is sumptuous and deep yet full of lively detail and purity of vocals. Somehow this DAC seems to bring out the best of most recordings it’s asked to render.
Two days before writing this review came the sad news that Meatloaf had died aged 74 so I just had to dig out ‘Bat Out of Hell’ (Tidal 96/24), it’s not the best of recordings being generally a bit bright and brash, pretty much of its day but the REX 3 gave it a good shot and I listened to the whole album without fatigue. Following this by ‘I’m on Fire’ by Bruce Springsteen from Born in the USA (Qobuz 96/24) and the wide soundstage emphasised his vocals aided and abetted by amazing dynamics it was engrossing, there was nothing of the old school valve sound here. These expensive DACs seem able to find that missing 15% that seems to elude most of us when assembling systems. Of course, these DACs would not be an appropriate addition to all systems because of their price but inserted into a well-balanced system comprises other similarly priced components they are more than capable of extracting the most information from any of your digital sources by converting those tricky 0s and 1s to analogue replay in the best way possible.
Listening via Coax to CD – Listening to ‘Ride Across the River’ by Dire Straits via a UHQCD from Japan the bass drums were as tight and powerful as I have ever heard them but with no loss of detail elsewhere in the range. That old hi-fi show favourite ‘Roadhouses and Automobiles’ from Chris Jones’ album of the same name was an immersive and relaxing listen showing just how good red-book CD can be. It was alive, detailed and harmonious with deep bass, sucking me in to keep listening. ‘God Moves on The Water’ from the same album starts with deep bass notes that render the need for subs obsolete when played via the REX 3 Tube DAC.
Conclusion – This DAC will lift your system to higher levels by providing all the detail you can expect, probably more than you are used to hearing, but doing so with such ease that it helps you relax into whatever you choose to play. That’s not to say it’s presentation is too smooth or too warm for its own good, it just sounds so right that it makes you want to keep listening late into the evening no matter what your preferred musical or volume choice.
All of us at Reference Audio liked this DAC so much that it has taken pride of place in our Reference Room where it is frequently used in partnership with all our other high-end equipment. We have a selection of BAT products on demo so come and visit us if you want to hear why I believe this DAC sounds so good and deserves a place on any high-end DAC shortlist.
Bob – Team Reference Audio