Hovland still cuts it 7 yrs on as 2013 approaches
Bob Hovland is working on a JBL SA600 for me now. He worked at JBL back in the late 60's and knows the product intimately. In fact he helped design a reciever for JBL and was at a New York audio show to introduce it when they were abruptly called back and informed that JBL had decided to go in another direction, that marked the end of the SA 600, his tuner and other high end consumer electronics..We talked about why his company went out of business as well and it boiled down to simply not charging enough for each unit..the time and materials used, in retrospect, should of equated to higher prices on his equipment. luckily for me I asked in passing if he had any tube amps for sale..It turns out he did, he had been upgrading a pair of dynaco mark iii's for the last "eight years" for a very picky audiophile who has eight Quad 57's. Although I'd just bought an adcom gfa 555ii I was so impressed with Bob I bought them..They sound amazing on my Dahlquist 10's. Very fortunate to of found him.... |
Steakster, Bob IS amazing. I'm notoriously hard to impress when it comes to audio, and after 7 yrs I'm STILL enthralled by his HP200/Radia combo that thoughts of changing them are just thoughts. Can anyone enlighten me as to why they became a casualty of the downturn with so few similar boutique type audio companies folding in due course? I mean their equipment was pricey, but fair for the sound and build quality offered. Design was excellent for the time, reliability and after sales service first rate, and Bob's status and influence in audio design very high. I mean if Hovland went bust, how come companies even more steeply priced are surviving (Boulder, Krell, Ayre BAT etc.)? |
Hovland made the Stratos amps that were massive 40,000 dollar mono blocks. Here's pics of them. http://www.avguide.com/review/the-hovland-stratos-mono-bloc-amplifiers |
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Yes, Tm, I'd concur that the Hovs are really tonally spot on, liquid and neutral in equal measure, hence my extreme reticence in considering breaking up a winning partnership. Certainly investigating cap changes never crossed my mind, but coincidentally on the Zu Definitions 3/4 thread I'm contributing to (I own the 4s), Dueland Cast upgrades are touted, so this may be where I go, rather than wholesale component changes. |
I agree with Dgarretson regarding the Hovland caps. A few years ago I swapped a pair of Tele 12Au7 tubes I no longer needed to Bob Hovland in exchange for a couple pairs of his Musicaps. My intention was to upgrade a pair of first order series crossovers which only used five passive parts; two of which were his caps. I put several hundred hours on them but they always made my speakers sound too bright, lean and dry; "glassiness" would also apply. Replacing the Hovlands with Mundorf Silver/Oil changed everything; huge improvements across the board! Now, a couple years later, I'm still very fond of the Mundorf's and have used them in another series crossover with only three passive parts. My final tweak will be to replace the single Mundorf with a Dueland Cast. They're rediculously expensive but I'm expecting some very nice improvements. Change the coupling caps in your Hovland and I'm guessing you'll probably want to keep it. Then again, Dgarretson and I both own Atma-Sphere MP-1's and might agree, if you really feel the need to upgrade, check out Atma-Sphere. |
Sounds like you're happy. IME the house brand Hovland Musicaps used in your preamp are mediocre by modern standards, and may be responsible for some of that "SS glassiness" that you are hearing. They were certainly the cause of dryness in Merlin VSM speakers that put me on the road to modifying the crossover and BBAM. In any case it's easy enough to try a coupling cap substitution and find out. You may conclude that your preamp is even more of a keeper than you knew. |
