Hovland HP200 - still relevant after 7 years?

[Ron Resnick]

Yes , good quality boards and components which nonetheless responded nicely to a few upgrades.

What upgrades did you have done?

Who did the upgrades for you?

 

[Argonaut]

What upgrades did you have done?

Who did the upgrades for you?

It wasn’t my unit Ron , Jed was for ever swapping resisters in and out replacing several metal films , also several cap experiments in spite of the unit sporting ‘s Hovland own brand capacitors which were pretty nice , mostly in the signal path , Teflon’s , Oils , Films , Styrenes etc .

 

[zbub]

When HP200 came out I borrowed one home for a week to see if I wanted to upgrade (HP200 was quite a bit more expensive). HP200 sounded a bit cleaner and more transparent. Ultimately HP200's line stage was more refined sounding than HP100, but I actually preferred the tube HP100 phono stage with my cartridge at the time (Clearaudio Insider Wood), so I kept the HP100.

 

[Ron Resnick]

When HP200 came out I borrowed one home for a week to see if I wanted to upgrade (HP200 was quite a bit more expensive). HP200 sounded a bit cleaner and more transparent. Ultimately HP200's line stage was more refined sounding than HP100, but I actually preferred the tube HP100 phono stage with my cartridge at the time (Clearaudio Insider Wood), so I kept the HP100.

Very interesting! Thank you!

Did the HP200 lose any of the HP100's "liquidity"?

 

[zbub]

Very interesting! Thank you!

Did the HP200 lose any of the HP100's "liquidity"?

No. Both sounded very smooth and musical.
IIRC the line stage board of the two preamps was the same. I am not sure if there were differences in the power supply.
If there's an audio equipment I wish I didn't sell, HP100 would be it.

 

[Ron Resnick]

No. Both sounded very smooth and musical.
IIRC the line stage board of the two preamps was the same. I am not sure if there were differences in the power supply.
If there's an audio equipment I wish I didn't sell, HP100 would be it.

I find very interesting the different design philosophies of different preamp designers. By many accounts the HP100 is an emotionally-engaging preamplifier -- in one manageable box.

Other preamps are composed of three and even four boxes. Is that necessary? In cost-no-object theory, maybe . . . probably. But in practice?

 

[Salectric]

For those wanting a little background on the Hovland preamps, you may find these comments by a former Hovland tech of interest.

My time at Hovland - HP-100 Lore

Every once in a while I see a post about Hovland and the HP-100 preamp. I worked at Hovland as a bench tech for about 3 months in 2002. I thought that since enough time has passed I would document all that I know about the inner workings of this lauded audiophile company and the esteemed HP-100...

www.diyaudio.com

 

[zbub]

Robert Hovland worked at Marantz and it was reported that the preamp circuit (HP100 and HP200) was based on Marantz 7. I am certainly not an engineer per se, but a line stage circuit is probably quite simple, so a huge chunk of money we spent on super fancy preamps were, well, fancy boxes... and extremely over-built power supplies.

 

[zbub]

For those wanting a little background on the Hovland preamps, you may find these comments by a former Hovland tech of interest.

My time at Hovland - HP-100 Lore

Every once in a while I see a post about Hovland and the HP-100 preamp. I worked at Hovland as a bench tech for about 3 months in 2002. I thought that since enough time has passed I would document all that I know about the inner workings of this lauded audiophile company and the esteemed HP-100...

www.diyaudio.com

Hi thank you for the link. Interesting read.

 

[mtemur]

For those wanting a little background on the Hovland preamps, you may find these comments by a former Hovland tech of interest.

My time at Hovland - HP-100 Lore

Every once in a while I see a post about Hovland and the HP-100 preamp. I worked at Hovland as a bench tech for about 3 months in 2002. I thought that since enough time has passed I would document all that I know about the inner workings of this lauded audiophile company and the esteemed HP-100...

www.diyaudio.com

Thanks for sharing. Apart from Hovland amps sound good or bad (I heard it 20 years ago and it was good) I had a strong feeling like the writer is a sound ignorant. I guess he may say powercords don’t make a difference, no such a thing like burn-in, bits are bits, no need for a top digital cable, printer usb cable is all you need etc.

There are many people with preconception believe that things other than switching gear don’t makes a difference and they believe it without experimenting and without proper equipment. I’m tired of this kind of ignorance.