Ice h2O S250 digital amp vs Levinson 333.5

I have tried the h2O S250 with a pair of Apogee Duettas Signatures and it was ok but my Pass Labs X350.5 blew it away! The Ice stuff still does not sound as good as most Class AB designs and if you can get lots of Class A power it is much more supperior over the ICE technology. I am not a fan of too much negative feedback and the ICE technology uses lots of it. The H20 is ok for CD and digital and the X350.5 was still significantly better but H20 with my turntable was not good. It could not produce the musical notes like the Pass X350.5. The H20 did not sound real. It is very weird because the H20 sounded very dynamic kind of high end car stereo like. The H20 had been used for several months before I got to try it.

if you want even semi-qualified answer then disclose the load the amp you serach will have to drive

If you do decide to go with any ICE amp, you will have to adopt a different cabling, sources and preamp strategy. So, it is more expensive than if you go with class AB, which the Pass 300.5 is.

I heard the Pass XA 100, and 300.5 on my speakers and they give a good sound, but don't at all challenge what I have here with ICE amps. Concerning ICE ampsvinyl, surface noise is amplified just like any other noisy component, like most preamps, sources and cables.

One more thing. A fellow in the recording industry, who had re-ribboned Duettas loved the ICE amp used with no preamp. He used an expensive CD player. In fact, it was a very evolved system He has moved to horns since, adopting SET amps for that purpose, as the ICE amp was too powerful for horns.

Hi Dob;

Yes, 2 minutes after I let the thread fly I realized I did not mention we are pushing Thiel 3.6's

Thanks

If you would like to write to the recording fellow I spoke about, he goes under the acronym chadeffect here:

http://forums.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1199909346

He can tell you how he did it. I use the H2O Fire preamp. It is expertly matched to the H2O amp. The rest to a spectacular sound is easy.

I haven't directly compared the H20 Signature S250 directly to any of the Mark Levinson amps but have directly compared it to my Audio Research VT-100 MK 2 tubed amp for 3 weeks. I found it to sound better than the VT-100 in a number of ways (see the link below). I have directly compared both the then top-of- the- line Mark Levinson and Krell amps back in 2005 to my VT-100. Neither could hold a candle sonically to my VT-100 in terms of harmonic textures that I value so much to my tubed amp. Incidentally, my preamp is a Great Northern Sound modified Audio Research Reference II preamp used with ProAC D80 speakers, and an Ayre C-5xeMP universal player. Cabling includes Purest Audio, Nordost, Nirvana, and PS Audio power cords with Audience and BPT power conditioners.

No matter how many thread or opinions that you read here or elsewhere, you really need to audition an H20 in your own system to know how well it sounds to you. E-mail Henry Ho, the designer of H20 for a home audition. Thats what I did and never looked back. Just my 2 cents.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1128648082&openusid&zzRlf&4&5#Rlf

Hello Lev,

I know these speakers a bit. The impedance there drove to almost 2 Ohm and they gace terrible phase performance.

You need not only powerful amplifier but one which control speakers with "iron glove"

I am sure new Levisnson 53 will do the job but for $50k retail which might be worth it but I ain;t have so much much at my disposal.

I use similarely difficult speakers to drive (B&W 802D) and I enjoy immensely the sound of Spectron amp I have.($4k retail)

Its the best if you can audition in your home and as far as I know Spectron has 30 days home trials.

Another good class D amplifier which may drive well your speakers is Jeff Rowland 312 at $15k retail.

class A amps I like are BAT600SE ($15k) and Plinius Reference ($18k) - these amps will aslo drive your speakers well.

Good Luck