Vfet / SIT Amplifiers

@ericteh ,

I now have a First Watt SIT-3 in my room right next to the other Vfet amps :)
I concur that it has great finesse and yes, it is a low gain amplifier.
The low gain is not a problem if you ran the SIT-3 with the proper preamp and efficient speakers.
I have the SIT-3 hooked up to a Yamaha C-1 that can push out like 3v, For speakers I am using Yamaha NS-2000 that are 90dB+ .
The all vfet sound of the preamp and the amp is addictive. An excellent match for the Beryllium drivers of the NS-2k..

I recently acquired a First Watt SIT-3 and I like my F2-J much better. I know I am in the minority in not loving the SIT-3.

It may be that the SIT-3 doesn’t like the impedance swings of my particular speakers.  Not saying it’s not a good amp, just not good synergy in my system.

In my system, the SIT-3 sounds like a computer simulation of an SET amp.

Yes, SIT-3 likes linear and higher efficiency speakers. More important is what you use to drive it with, since SIT-3 has relatively low gain.
There is lot of synergy between the SIT-3 and the Yamaha C-1 I drive it with. 

It sounds sublime in my setup and fits well with the pack of classic Vfet amps.

I have a FW SIT-3 amp, which I really like. It has plenty of power for my Horning Eufrodite Elipse Speakers. They have 98db efficency with a 4 ohm flat load, which is in the SIT-3 sweet zone.
The sound is detailed, smooth, airy, with beautiful tonal colors and has no electronic signature whatsoever.
I also run 300b mono's, which have a little more texture but, the FW comes very close.
It will be a classic in years to come!

You guys are making me jealous I can't get more out of the SIT-3 in my system!

My speakers are 95db efficient and are 8 ohms. I tried dropping resistors in parallel to reduce the impedance down to 4 ohms but honestly didn't notice much of a difference.

The main issue I'm having is that I listen at low to modest volume most of the time and I can't get enough out of the SIT-3 at low volumes.  It sings at higher volumes but usually I don't want to listen that loud. 

This might be an issue with my preamp's gain, which is only 10.3dB.  Combined with the SIT-3's low gain, maybe this is a recipe for failure.  I haven't tried it with another preamp yet.