Cube Audio Nenuphar Single Driver Speaker (10 inch) TQWT Enclosure

First to log in on speaker cable inquiry: I use SR Foundation cables after having auditioned them against Double Shotgun Clear Day cables. (RIP Paul Laudati).  The Foundation had more meat in the mid range and bass as well as more air and larger soundstage.

But now on to my latest discovery.  So I've been sitting here happy as an audiophile clam can be with my Pass Labs XP-32 and SIT 1's making magic with my Nenuphars.  Then my local Pass Labs dealer (Gestalt Hifi) becomes a Vinnie Rossie dealer and offers me an audition of the VR Integrated Amp L2i.  He even has the upgraded Elrog 300b tubes.  I look up the specs on this universally acclaimed 100 AB watts per channel unit and find it has zero negative feedback (great) but an output impedance of .10 ohm.  Not so great, giving it a damping factor of 800 driving the Nenuphars.  But still, my friend Mike is willing to come over and install the beautiful beast (50 lbs) white gloving the tubes and everything.  We listen for a while, things sound decent, he leaves and I'm sort of wincing at this over ripe plummy ness to Bill Charlaps's piano. (Ah tubes, I say to myself.)  So I go away and come back in a couple of hours and really listen.  Whoa.  Wait.  We have a contender here!  All plummy ness is gone, the soundstage is HUGE (something others have heralded about this amp), instruments are 3 dimensional and tonal colors are like wet paint. This can't be, it sounds more alive and real than my SIT-1s!  But I'm not focusing on the bass enough, surely the gorilla damping factor has to be sitting on that.  So I play the best test of true bass I know, Ray Brown's Super Bass and his Three by Four number from his Walk On album.  Not only is depth of bass better, but it's more tuneful and full of these micro details, string against finger flesh, string against wood I've never heard before.  Plus the live recording space has become my room!  So what's the damping factor reigning in or impacting?  I can't hear it.  I think someone here a while ago loved the Nenuphars with an equally high damping factor Gryphon amp. I looked askance.  Well, I ain't looking that way no more.  The VR is punching way above it's damping factor weight (or any weight class for that matter) and I'm grinning ear to ear.  More to come. 

@stephendunn Congrats on the outcome. I’d also be interested in how the SIT-1s would sound driven by a high quality tube (6sn7 or dht) preamp (perhaps you’ve already tried this?). I love Pass labs, but have read some mixed reviews of their preamps and wonder how much of what you’re hearing is from the preamp stage of the VR.

(Edit, I just looked up the VR and see they talk extensively about the - dht- tube typology used in the preamp gain stage!)

(Edit 2, and now I see the VR has a preamp output so you can actually try running the SITs with the VR front-end and see exactly how much you like each of its parts. That's great.)

Yet another example of why nothing substitutes for direct listening in your system (When possible). Some have had unimpressive results with high DF amplifiers  and some excellent results.  The Nenuphar designer and builder favors low DF amplifiers for these speakers.  So while DF is a factor to be aware of there are obviously other variables that are impactful as well. This is what makes high end audio interesting,  fun and sometimes mysterious. Listening trumps all.
Charles 

Cal,
Good observation. It would be most interesting to see how the DHT preamp section  of the VR mates with the S.I.T.-1 My suspicion is very well and quite likely to surpass the Pass Labs preamp in this scenario.   Fun stuff.
Charles

Cal and Charles,

Yes, it is definitely on my list to audition with the L2i acting solely as a DHT pre amp driving the SIT-1s.  I have a hunch about it but won't say because as Charles says you just don't know until you listen.

The problem is tearing myself away from what's coming forth from the integrated.  Oh, my.  And my apologies, it's Rossi duh not Rossie.