Well I took one of my S250 Sigs and a Tact S2150 over to my buddy Larry's place yesterday for a listen thru his, yet again, newly refurbished Sound Lab M-1s. The upgrades included a new membrane & stators (26 vs 20 per cell), new floor coupling structure and reworked/wired interface.
First off the M-1s are FABOULOUS. Period. This is one panel speaker that kicks ass dynamically with bass slamm like you read about. They don't need a sub. Nothing phases them. Peaks are scaled effortlessly and they don't just stop on a dime but can hit light speed before reaching the dimes edge. Larry's done a great job of setting them up too.
Front end was the latest Meitner DSD transport and DAC, followed by his two box tubed pre (forgot the name)all plugged into a PS Audio P300.
First listening thru the Parasound JC-1 all of the above characteristics were quite apparent. These are exceptional amps. The overall tonal balance, however, seemed a bit lean and forward to me with a slight nasal quality on certain material. I suspect there is a mild peak in the 1 Khz region. The soundstage was spectacular! A biiiiig panel that can image precisely. Wow!
Next we took my S250 Sig, plugged it into a PS Audio Ultimate Outlet which was them plugged into the P300. We used the single ended inputs with the Reference Line DSL cabling and Bybee filters that I brought with me. As the S250 had been sitting idle for about 4 hours and has a SERIOUS power supply (dual mono in fact with dual transformers)the in rush of power, promptly shut down the P300 which was already pushing 120 watts into the front end. After repowering everything back up there were no further power up problems as the S250s caps were now fully charged. At idle it drew only 20 watts.
The differences were immediately apparent and, to my ears and sonic priorities, better. Larry was a bit lukewarm at first as the amp needed some time to warm up sounding a bit constipated and dark until about 1/2 hours into the session. More serious was the fact that we just could not get the gain we needed to match our previous listening levels. The S250 has about 3-4 db less gain than the JC-1 and the single ended output of the pre drops the gain a further 6 db (we were using the pre's balanced output with the JC-1). So we had to listen thru the volume difference. What we did agree on was that everything was exceptionally CLEAN,open and detailed. That darkness was really the background blackness brought on by that cleanliness. Not so careful listening showed that there was actually more treble information but greater "liquidity". Though the volume was considerably lower, I though the overall presentation was less forward. Soundstaging was at first cramped but as the S250 warmed up it became huge, transparent and very well focused. A very musically involving presentation. However, we just could not really crank it so we tried the balanced inputs with his cables. Yup, much greater volume level but as this guy can deliver current, we shut down the P300 after only about another 3 db of volume. Rats! During that time however, it was pretty obvious to me that the balance inputs and their silver wiring needed breaking in with things sounding a bit thin and flat..but still pretty good.
To get around the input power limitations we then plugged the S250 into the conditioner that power the JC-1s (still using the balanced inputs). This is where things got interesting as yeah, there was more volume capability, but to my ears things took a good couple of steps backwards. Again, thinner and flatter. Then we tried plugging the Ultimate outlet into the chain. Wow! At first we thought things were darker again but not so, just cleaner. These things work for these type of amps and should be considered mandatory!!! I had noticed this effect before and much more dramatically with the Tact amps but was very pleasantly surprised to hear how much it did for the S250.
However, this does cloud a direct comparison of the S250 to the JC-1. As a system, I found the S250 (thru the well broken in single ended inputs), Ultimate Outlet, P300 combo superior to the JC-1. In fact, I think I preferred the S250 thru the balanced inputs and Ultimate outlet to the JC-1. Unfortunately, we did not have time to try the Ultimate outlet on the JC-1 or thru their never used, single ended inputs. My conclusion is that they will probably sound very similar to each other on an absolute basis. However the S250 Sig IS a whole lot cheaper and can, for an equivalent system price point, be taken up to a level that's noticeably superior to the JC-1 (IMHO) thru the use of an Ultimate outlet and Power Plant style device.
As this posting has gotten rather long winded, the bottom line is that the S250 Sig and the Soundlab M-1 are a great combination.
I'll save the long winded discourse concerning the Tact amp comparison for another posting but only say now that Larry like it and yes, they too can drive the big SLs.
Jeff
