Quote:
Originally Posted by luvdunhill /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Hey Al, how do the new amps with HE-60 compare to Alex's old ES-1/SR-Ω combo?
|
Boy, you'd trust my memory? And, I am sure this is a set-up, but, I'll bite.
Actually, I never heard that combo, for two reasons - a) Alex would not (and reasonably so) bring the Omega to a meet, and b) he sold them (in 1q2007 iirc) before I got a chance to hear them at his house, oh, and before the amp developed Singlepower-itis.
I was VERY familiar with that particular amp, as Rob let me listen to it on several occasions, at meets and his house, both with his OII, and with my he-60. The amp also had a very pricey set of Telefunken driver tubes, which was, as one would imagine, superb - and, all told that amp cost about $4500.
Caveat: IMHO!!!!
So, to hold anything ceteris paribus (from my fading memory, with declining capacity, and creeping tinnitis) it would be fairer for me to eval against the BH or even your KGSS. It compares favorably with those amps (my source, and the he-60), but no specific areas better or worse except IIRC the bass on eXStata is better than either KG design (of the builds I've heard, my tubes, my source, my music selection, my areas of interest, etc), and, from what i can tell, no weaker in any area.
I know this differs from your experience with the OII and the SS proto version, but we do need a LOT more A/B, with better overall critical listening conditions.
Now, IFF Vulcan will power up, and actually run (given it's 3x places I could have screwed up, not to mention just it's wiring scheme), then I can make a truer comparison side by side, and maybe BH will benefit from angelic intervention (found a shipping box!!!), and that will be available by the January Dallas meet IFF the tranny isn't burned (the SumR unit spec'd for Vulcan can be used in BH worst case).
BUT, I have not heard my latest version (JUST got back from picking up the LED resistors at Tanners, and should have all that sorted by early evening), so I will be really vocal about comparisons, with a complete SWOT analysis as soon as I think it is burned in - hopefully by Monday. I could not do that with the proto, and my reservations there led directly to the ccs in this version - all so I can listen to 'Tool' with impunity, or, extreme prejudice.
Now, I REALLY cannot wait to have the take-it-to-the-mat discussions regarding flavor of 6s4a (hey, at least we are only arguing about ONE tube), whether Tung-Sol or Amperex or some odd matched getter/flashing version is best, not to mention what happens with cryo...
So, in summary, no opinion - iirc, Alex raved about he-60 with BH, then liked the ES-1/SR-Ω combo better, albeit after paying about $8.5k for the amp and phones, and had a second pair of SR-Ω at $4kish, so he was rather heavily invested. Not that the $ expenditure EVER influences our opinions about how something sounds...
