I've own a pair of the original design bought used for $4900 (recently saw a pair offered for $4200-a steal!!!), with the following observations:
Imaging and coherence are nothing short of amazing. I have a 21'w x 31' deep basement listening room and get a huge sound soundstage with no loss of center fill placing the BHs 14' apart, listening at the third point of an equilateral triangle. A bit forward sounding, but not harsh, with my ss preamp (Musical Design SP-3 prototype) and hybrid amps (Blue Circle BC-28 x 2 in vertically biamped config). This has become less noticeable with an Audio Note DAC 4.1x Signature (still breaking in at <100 hours). I have a very live room, though, and room treatment (my next project) may soon make this a non-issue for me. Your tube amplification should be quite compatible. I also found that changing speaker cables made a difference (FWIW, I now use 4' runs of Stealth Ultimate Ribbons x 2, to good effect). Not the last word in lower-mid and bass impact, especially in my large room. The gas piezo tweeter lives up to its hype-for the first time I could hear true timbral overtones in the trumpet playing of Miles (I've always found the trumpet a most challenging instrument for hi-fi reproduction. In a way it's my acid test for tweeters...). All this said, I am VERY happy with the Blue Herons and would not think of replacing them in the system I now have.
