New H20 Signature S250

Lloydf-

How many hours do you have on your amp now? I ask because in my case (similar dynamic speaker load as yours) the amps seemed to take much longer to break in than those with more demanding loads (such as those driving Apogee's)...

I experienced significant improvement after the first 50-150 hours, and continued improvement well into 500 hours, and the last bit of the vocals becoming fully fleshed out and tube like was close to 800 hours if I recall correctly or so.

Keep us posted on how they evolve with time for you, please. I may be looking into a S250 for a secondary system in a few months... thank you for your input.

Lloydf,

Feel free to drop me an email and I could give you more info on other preamps I have used as well, however - in a nutshell I think the First Sound Presence Deluxe Mk II would be the best of both worlds of the two preamps you have just auditioned. The First Sound Presence Deluxe Mk II is a tube preamp, however it does not sound like a tube preamp in the classic, tubey sense. The music emminates from a drop dead, quiet background, is rythmic, dynamic (both micro and macro), and has the drive that usually only SS preamps have. However, being tube, you also get the liquidity and texture of the instruments and vocals. Do a search in the forums here, as there is a thread running now over the past month or two on the FS PD MK II... Drop some NOS tubes into the preamp and this is a keeper.

I have paralleled your experience in trying many preamps in the past. Most were good, however excelled in one area and left you wanting for a bit more in another. This preamp will be staying in my system. If anything, I may splurge down the road and upgrade it to the 4.0

Again, feel free to email with any other questions. I am no expert, and have not tried hundreds of preamps out there, however it is difficult when there aren't local dealers to audition the gear you are trying to gain some insight into, thus I would be more than happy to offer any experiences I have had in comparisons.

You mate the right preamp with that combo and I think you will only need to worry about what music you will listen to next... :)

Mr. Bill,

I have no experience with the MIT & H2o together. However, in the past I had used the MIT 750 Series 2 biwire with Theil 3.6's and McCormack DNA-Deluxe. As you state, there was no loss of low level detail... It was there and fine. I ended up making and audiophile "adjustment" and ended up with Martin Logan SL3's, same amp, same MIT cabling. Still sounded alright. Looking to make a swap to tubes, friends came over with Sonic Frontiers SFS-80, Music Reference RM-9, as well as a Conrad Johnson model I can't recall. I can tell you after swapping all of them in and OUT, everyone was scratching their heads. Two friends *swore* it had to be those damn MIT boxes and one drove home and brought back a pair of Synergistic Research speaker cables (No. 2 or No. 3 if I recall) and it was amazing, every single ONE of the tube amps there sounded MUCH better than the big McCormack DNA-2 Deluxe with the MIT... actually we then tried the DNA-2 Deluxe with the Synergistic as well, and it was much better. All we could come up with is the box must have caps and such that "adjust" or "tune" the highs and lows to affect the sound for SS amps that may be bright in some systems. It was definately affecting the sonics in my system.

Disclaimer: This was well into the past... about 8 years or so ago, perhaps 7. However, after that weekend - I listed every MIT interconnect and speaker cable for sale, and will never consider another again.

Don't get me wrong, I have heard them sound quite decent on a Krell or Spectral / Avalon or Thiel / MIT system, however detailed, sterile, analytical doesn't appeal to my musical tastes... at least not anymore (that is what got me hooked initially).

All in all I guess I am just trying to relay almost all cables have strengths and weaknesses. Some more than others, I assume. In this case, I know there were "major" sonic landscape shifts with the comparison of the MIT cabling with tube gear compared to Synergistic Research.

Perhaps the MIT boxes adversely affect the H2o. Like I said, I don't know personally. I know the MIT boxes did adversely affect the SFS-80, Music Reference RM-9, and those Conrad Johnsons...

At the summit, it usually does depend on overall synergy of equipment to bring out the best in each component.

Man, it is good to have some affirmation here of others who have used good tube amps and now are satisfied with the Sig H2o's. I wasn't quite sure I was hearing correct, so I did listen well over 1,000 hours on the H2o Sig Mono's before posting a bit on them (if I recall correct, maybe a bit less) seemed like forever! But after that 500 or 700 hour mark when the vocals just seemed to flesh out and become more organic and liquid, that was it. Definately a keeper to me. Don't get me wrong... I knew what I was hearing was great - to my ears, however it does make you second guess when you are one of the first with a "new" product...

Happy listening... now I am wishing my system was together!