I was doing some serious A-B comparisons between the Hegel H30 monoblocks (1100 watts - 770 RMS) and the BAT REX 3 Tube monoblocks (160 watts - 115 RMS). Hegel likes to claim their SS amps have a tube like sound quality so I was giving that claim a workout. And speaking of workouts, all four of these amps weigh in at 100 pounds, so moving them into position takes its toll on your low back. Before anyone says lift with your arms, I'll state unequivocally my 70 year old arms don't have that much lift left in them.
By way of comparison, I would listen to a well known track three times, and then switch the amps and listen again. After two tracks I realized I could leave the amps in place and just move the cables. Given space restrictions, I needed to have one set of amps in front of the other. My 6 foot Puritan Ultimate PCs ($1000 CDN) were not long enough to reach the forward amps but I did have some 10 foot, 10AWG PCs I bought a couple years ago from Amazon ($159). I thought OK, there will be some loss of sound quality but still a valid test as both amps would use the same 10 foot PC.
To my surprise, there was ZERO loss of fidelity between the cables. I thought how can this be so I started just testing the two PCs on both sets of amps. I wanted to hear a difference. I paid to hear a difference. I heard ZERO difference. And I'm not looking to start another PC thread, I'm just stating the results in my comparison.
As for the two sets of amps, there were a couple tracks that were heavy on the upper range where the H30s were a tad brighter than the Rex 3. An example would be the MoFi release of the first CSN LP, the song Helplessly Hoping showed that difference when all three vocals join in. Other than that, I'm convinced you would not be able to name the amps in a blind listening session. Other than the heat radiating off the Tube Amps. The H30s have unlimited headroom and are stable with a load down to 1 ohm. Still, I didn't hear any example of the REX 3 not being able to handle any demand out on them. From Chet Baker to Chicago, both sets of amps performed beautifully. Neither set out did the other. From a price perspective, the H30s at $17000 CDN each vs the REX 3 at $35000 CDN each (MSRP), the nod would have to go to the H30s. They also have no ongoing tube costs and run at normal temp of +/- 90 F.
Cheers.
