Hovland vs McIntosh for Preamp

I was also interested in both of these pre's, but did not have the chance to audition the Hovland. Iwent with the mac C100 and love it. Also the Hovland had no remote and for volume...well I guess I'm just lazy.

Barnes since you are spending big bucks you may want to consider the beautiful and seductive JADIS. the hovland has great reviews, if it were me i would go JADIS.

I have owned both, I still own the Hovland. Unfortunayely I didn't have both preamps with the same setups so I cannot give you a fair comparison.

I wasn't real thrilled with the controls of the Mac, but everything worked fine.

Not sure at all what the previous comments are to mean, other than they appear to be a happy Jadis owner.

The Hovland doesn't have a remote if that is an issue. I really like the Hovland and have no plans of selling it. Very high quality as well.

If you already like the Mac, why not go with it, it's cheaper.

Brianmgrarcom what i mean to say is don't believe everything you read. refer to a review on the hovland in the latest issue of the "ABSOLUTE SOUND" where the reviewer says "hovland is the best" but this review is questioned by Mr. Steve Neshan in the letters on page 13.Then Mr. Braverman ,the "professional audio critic" defends his "OPINION", should add questionable to that. if i am spending $6k, i want my money,s worth. JADIS has a reputation for going beyond the ordinary ,not more ,but "MOST bang for the buck". Barnes refer to a thread on 1-29 01 by Pgleekel and go the the post by Rayhall ,he talks about his experience of hovland. as for me i,ll never believe everything a "professional" reviewer says, the old proverb "grain of salt" best applies here.

So, your logic is, "it has great reviews, but you don't believe in reviews, although you read them, therefore buy the Jadis because you own it"?

I am not rying to be rude here, but there isn't much useful info you are giving this person.

For the record and for what it's worth, yes TAS gives it a glowing review and Stereophile rates it Class A. There are many, many threads on here that can be read about the credibility of reviews.