H2O Signature Stereo vs H20 Signature Mono Amps

I'm thrilled with my Signature S250s. I had three of the original S250s for tri-amping and got the first Signature upgrade. It's definitely worth the extra cash and makes me wonder if Henry ought not skinny his line down to just the mono & stereo Signatures while offering upgrades for the earlier products.

My only concern with tube preamps is that some have very high output impedances (over 500 and up to 1500 ohms). The input impedance of the amp is set by the ICE module at 7-8 kHz. You really need to keep the preamp output impedance under 500 ohms otherwise you will compromise the amps bass response, which is one of its most stunning and arresting characteristics.

IMHO, of course.

Jeff

I talked to Henry just before posting. I didn't mention the prices. Thank you Kirk. According to Henry, the Sig monos sit at the apex of the H2O line. The S-250 Sig is not the same amp, though Henry should be happy to see it surpassing expectations.

Henry quoted me $2500 for the Stereo version 6 months ago. Have prices gone down?

As far as I last heard:

S-250 - $2,500

S-250 Sig. - $2,800 ? first I heard was here (not sure)

M-250 - $4,000

M-250 Sig. - $5,500

I would assume Henry quoted you correctly and perhaps Muralman had a typo above...

Barrelchief

In what way are you downsizing your rig?

The H20 stereo versions have about 1/2 the capacitor storage bank of the monos. That said, the stereo H20s still have more storage than many other amps - in excess of 70,000 uF per channel.

Could this extra storage capacity be wasted in your downsized system?

The stereo Signature model is essentially dual mono in a single chassis. It employs a separate transformer for each channel.

Bob