My horns are also 95dB and sound great with the BHKpre/BHK300s. There is a bit of hiss, that I tamed using 10dB attenuators at the amp input.
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Hadn’t thought about using attenuators…
I’ve tried using the one built into my DS Dac, but find it robs the music of some of its dynamics.
Maybe just need to turn it up louder!
My concern is the attenuators are most likely causing more sonic damage than the amount they are reducing the hiss.
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Not in my opinion. I’ve done lots of listening.
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Funny, I went the other way I have a Pass XP-32 pre amp and had X600 power amps. I went to the BHK 300s. I am happier with the BHK 300s than the Pass X600s. Better mids and a lot less heat in the room.
How long have you had the XP-32? Is it your first Pass preamp?
Yes, the XP-32 is my first Pass pre-amp. I had been an Audio Research user previously: SP-8 and then Reference 2 MkII. I received the Pass the last week of November. It was Reno Hi-Fi’s demo and on a Black Friday sale price.
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OP here, hi again.
Reckon in my situation the 300’s would be too much, the 250 would be plenty.
…or the new McKintosh 462, sure looks pretty and supposed to be great.
Price wise in between the 250 and 300 mono’s.
Stick with the BHK, get synergy built in or…?
Think I’m a bit hypnotised by the McKintosh brand, and would be a bit of an inheritance for my son when It’s passed on to him…
But if the BHK sounds noticeably better…
(From what I’ve read the traditional Mac warm n woolly sound isn’t in their new SS amps)
Daft way to look at it, I know!
Any thoughts, experience of two amps appreciated.
Thanks.
I will will my 300s to my favorite child with minimal hours left on the tubes- they will still drop their jaw in amazement- and scramble for the few 6922 left in the landscape-
- Both are fantastic amps
- Both are fantastic companies
- Enthusiasts view old McIntosh as collectors items; values are high
- New McIntosh will one day be old McIntosh (see item 3)
- If that’s a face to love and be proud of, well, you know what to do… (gorgeous)
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Either one is a good choice. I would go the combination that would result in the warmer, more liquid sound.
I like the BHK 300s much better
300’s would be out of my budget unfortunately, so would be looking at 250 only.
A single box amp suits be better practically as well, I want to avoid putting amps on the floor.
@kylemillsap
I know you preferred the 300’s to your Mac 203, guess it comes down to the difference between the 250 and the 300 mono’s?
Its a “do it once and do it right” scenario for me, hence my nagging questions! 
Thanks.
I’ve spoken several times to Jimmy Hughes about Impulse speakers. He reviewed most of them and still has the H1’s that he reviewed over 30 years ago. He used a 30w DNM amp (class A solid state) to test the H1 and a 15w Audio Note valve for the H2 (I think). He has modified his H1 and I presume your H2’s are restored. Most of the original cost of the speaker was in the cabinet. They use off-the-shelf SEAS drivers, all 4 can be replaced for a total of about £350. The maximum power rating is 100w. So BHK 250 would seem to be a complete mismatch for the H2’s.
Ignoring Audio Note, which would seem to be the obvious choice, have you considered the Trilogy 993? It’s a valve hybrid and you have a local dealer. I heard it’s big brother, a pair of 995R recently and they were sublime. They were operating in valve pure class A up to 40w with 91dB speakers, but go to 200w in A/B, but cost £22,500. The 993 is about £6,000 and 125w, so still more than sufficient.
Thanks for that, good info.
Hadn’t heard of the Trilogy amp before.
I can remember reading Jimmy’s original review as a kid and thinking One day I will own a pair of those!
Have to say, his review wasn’t wrong about them.
The Impulses have bowled me over, quite the best I’ve heard too…and listening to anything else since getting my restored H2s sound shut in and compressed in comparison.
I digress…
My previous power amp was a 300B SET, rated around 9W and had plenty of volume and heft through the Impulses.
Running a 70 w/c “stand in” power amp at the moment, and it doesn’t sound particularly louder than my SET, which I thought was interesting.
RE: Volume/ watts mismatch with the BHK…
I know too little power from an amp is worse than too much, you just need to be careful with volume, but is it really a dealbreaker with my H2’s?
Reading around, I picked up that it would be ok, obviously dont turn the wick up full!
Thanks again.
Nic Poulson has been going quietly under the radar for the best part of 30 years, ex-BBC and making highly regarded amplifiers. He really knows his onions. He also founded Isotek, so knows a thing or two about mains conditioning and regeneration. Colin Wonfor, no slouch himself, told me he worked with Nic in the 1980s and thought he was a bit of a genius. The 995R mono blocks were breathtaking, in a very good set-up, and are a remarkable design.
I had a 300B SET as well and it’s as much the output transformers, thinking Audio Note, EAR, Art Audio (using Sowter’s). I still prefer solid state and hybrid is a good way to go.
Bear in mind the BHK250 costs £8,000 and many people in the USA were paying perhaps no more than $5,000 with dealer discounts, so the comparison is a bit apples and pears.
I would have thought Trilogy’s Glasgow dealer could arrange a loan unit.
Other options would I suppose be a Sugden SPA-4 or Croft.
I don’t own and have not had a chance to audition either of the BHK amplifier offerings. If the above statement is really your chosen mantra, get by with what you have and scrimp and save for the mono blocks. By all indications (at least in terms of what I have read in the PSA fora) the 300’s are superior to the 250.
Maybe others can chime in and confirm but, IIRC, many here have been enthralled with the 250 but could not resist the “upgrade” to the 300’s due to all of the praise they receive from those that have owned both.
Why take the financial hit with the 250 if you are going to inevitably succumb to the FOMO and grab a pair of 300’s?
I have no idea how deep your pocket book is or what your timeline/outlook is for building your system. If you are more of an impatient type you have to trade off the “pain” of waiting for the 300’s piggy bank to fill up vs. the “pain” of plunking down real money for the 250, then upgrading to the 300’s b/c you just can’t wait and taking a bit of hit on depreciation of the 250.
Decisions, decisions… (First world problems!)
FWIW, if you really are lusting after the 300s and I were you, I would save up for the 300s and get by until I could afford them.
Best of luck to you in any event.
I’m not sure everyone posting here is aware of what speakers we are talking about.
They were popular because they were a horn loaded speaker that was quite slim and fitted into normal rooms. They were made by a one-man-band called Brian Taylor, using Seas mid and bass and a Focal tweeter. They had a bit of a cult following because of rave reviews by Jimmy Hughes, who had a bit of a cult following himself. Jimmy still has his H1’s that he reviewed in February 1989. They are the exception in being quite a bit bigger, a bit too big for the UK and hence why the H2’s were much slimmer. You see a few rebuilt effectively completely new from a set of original carcasses and they sell for around £1,500 ($2,000), which is probably what they cost to restore.
For the same money you can get Quad to rebuild a pair of ESL63’s as new.
I considered getting a pair myself, but Jimmy suggested the Ta’au, which is the H2 Mk2. There were several improvements, not least replacing the foam bass unit surrounds with rubber, as the foam rapidly disintegrated, especially in export markets.
Impulse speakers, and Quad ESL for that matter, just do not need much power. They were built for a market where 30w was typical at the time. Too much power can damage ESL and the 250w will be wasted on the 8" SEAS driver. I seem to remember that Impulse was based in Lindfield, a village in West Sussex that is also home to Harbeth, who also base their speakers on an 8" driver.
So the OP has probably got a mountain of advice from UK forums, 8w may be a bit of a limitation, but above 30w the limitation will probably be more the drivers than the amplifier.
As the OP’s speakers have been rebuilt and probably got new crossovers as well, probably better than the originals, I would have thought more powerful valves like an EAR amp or the Trilogy 993 hybrid would suit, but only after getting a loan unit.
Throwing a pair of £16,000 300w monoblocks at a pair of £1,500 high sensitivity speakers specified to a maximum of 100w sounds to me like complete madness.
Maybe so…
FWIW, I was just responding in context to the apparent angst about choosing between the referenced amplifiers.
A good choice would be an EAR 534, bizarrely there is one on eBay expiring in a few minutes, unsold at £2,000. They are about £5,000 new. Tim de P makes all his own transformers and these are by all accounts great valve amplifiers.