Get your First Watt SIT-3 now?

Lwin, thanks for providing the additional perspective.

George (Jetter), I've owned my XA25 for about five months now, and the early impressions you've probably seen me mention in other threads continue to apply.  Basically, I've found Teajay's review to be absolutely spot-on, and for that matter to be more accurately focused than Herb Reichert's comparably positive review in Stereophile.

The bottom line IME is that I don't miss the 300B-based VAC Renaissance 70/70 MkIII I had been using during the previous several years at all.  The XA25 comes remarkably close to the VAC with respect to dimensionality, imaging, liquidity, and other traditional fortes of high quality tube amps. It’s a bit less rich sounding than the VAC, but I interpret that as an increase in accuracy, which is fine as far as I am concerned. 

I should add, though, as you're probably aware, that my speakers (Daedalus Ulysses) are extremely easy to drive, having an unusually flat and benign impedance curve as well as high sensitivity (rated at 97.5 db/1W/1m).  Also, in case it matters (which it probably doesn't), most of my listening is to classical music.

Finally, I'll mention that as it happened I didn't have an opportunity to do much critical listening during the week I gave the XA25 the 120 hour breakin that was recommended by Mark at Reno HiFi (from whom I purchased the amp; he was wonderful to deal with, btw).  So I can't comment on how its sonics might have changed during that period.

Best regards,
-- Al 

 

Hi Al,
You should ask Mark if he has any SIT-3 amps left. Your speakers would be a good match with the amp, if your preamp has enough gain. He is great to deal with.
It sounds wonderful with my Horning Eufrodite Ellipses and I have no desire so far of putting back my Frankenstein 300b mono's. It almost sounds like an SET amp with much better defined bass and more extension in frequency response.

Thanks, Joe (Snopro).  But the SIT-3 wouldn't work for me, as the DEQX HDP-5 I use as my preamp provides essentially zero gain from its analog inputs to its analog outputs.  (And in fact the default positions of some internal jumpers result in negative gain).  Basically, it can be thought of as driving an amp directly from the output of a volume-controlled DAC circuit, with no intervening preamp.

And in any event, as I indicated I'm very satisfied with the XA25.

Best regards,
-- Al

The SIT-3 just got reviewed by Herb Reichert in the new Stereophile, so I’m sure they’re now all sold. Some of the First Watt designs get cloned, which Nelson Pass has no problem with, as long as it’s for personal use. If a schematic can be acquired, a clone can be built.

Thank you Al, from your description and also all I have read the XA25 is a strong candidate for a future purchase. My speakers are reported as 89 dB 6 ohms nominal so based on the speakers many have reported pairing the XA25 with I don’t think there should be a problem driving them.

Actually, it seems like your speakers are among the highest efficient speakers and that most of the reviews or users reported no problems driving less efficient speakers. I don’t recall anyone having problems regarding the XA25 not adequately driving their speakers to adequate volumes.

Sorry dseltz for taking your thread on a tangent.