I'm going to make it a point to hear the SIT-1 monoblocks with a DHT preamp in front of it. I have listened to DHT preamps and have heard the SIT-2, but have not heard the two sequenced together. I'll give Srajan benefit of doubt, and I do believe the adjustable bias monoblocks will get closer to being musically convincing than the SIT-2 regardless of what's in front of it.
At the moment I have no reason to believe that putting a DHT preamp in front of the SIT will correct truncated note decay, nor the dynamic compression due to limited power and headroom. I agree the SIT amp has better bass control than any SET amp I can think of. I don't agree that it meaningfully outresolves every SET amp (though certainly many or even most), at least not in any way consistent with how instruments actually sound instead of how they sound close-mic'd and hot in the mix. But there's another thing: It's not just ears and mind but the body. There is a state of engagement, involvement -- full-body response, that I reliably experience listening to live performance. I have never had the identical full body response to recorded music played through transistor amplification nor through any push-pull vacuum tube amplifier. Nor, of course, to live music heard exclusively through electronic processing and conventional amplification. I did not have it with the SIT-2 either. The sound was "over there." I have the same full-body response listening to recorded music that I can have with a live orchestra, for example, only with a small range of exceptional SET amplification and crossoverless speakers. It's not "similar." It's the same organic response. I don't even have to analyze what I'm hearing. I feel it, in binary fashion. It's there or it's not. It's always been that way for me. Many times when I have noticed a small change in a sound system, it's because of what I felt before hearing something I can immediately pinpoint. Give me a solid state amp that can induce the same full-body engagement in recorded playback that I can get with certain SET aplification or upon hearing it live, and I'll buy it.
I am intrinsically interested in hearing proof that the SIT devices can compete with high-grade SET implementations. I want Nelson Pass' adventurism to pay off. He's always pushing in the right direction for the right reasons. I'd like an electrically more efficient and consistent successor to a high-heat triode tube if the sound warrants. Put another way, I am predisposed to like the SIT amps but the actual sound hasn't moved me yet. It's closer than other solid state options offered so far so I'll give it every chance to convince me.
Phil
