Muralmans' amps reviewed Ultra Audio.

It seems the reviewer likes amps which are light and nimble rather than lush and romantic...probably why he does not like tubes. I've never heard the H2O's so don't know what they sound like. I was extreamly impressed with the preamp from this company "The Fire"...and Fire is a good name for this baby...cause it do run HOT!...as a matter of fact, when I pulled it out of the box and saw the heat sinks running down both sides I thought it looked more like a power amp than a preamp.

Dave

Tvad

He did say they were "kinda tube like" in a round about way, ie...tube lovers will like them...people who say that usually have not had much tube experience.

light and nimble, lush and romantic, have many flavors...depending on a few things. You could even say...new Krells are light and nimble, while old school Krells are lush and romantic.

Dave

Speaking of Henry Ho, I just had his (yet to be released) "FIRE" preamp in my system for a two week trial...one of the best preamps I've had the pleasure to use.

Dave

I heard no veil...I compared it to my Audioprism Mantissa tubed preamp which replaced a Bent Audio transformer volume control in my system a couple years ago...both first rate in my opinion.

Amps were tubed monos (Rogue M-120 Magnums) and speakers (Apogee Duetta Signature)...it did take around 2 hours warm up before really opening up and fleshing out. Maybe not a good preamp choice for those users that can only grab a quick listen to their systems...sounded about on par with my Sunfire Theatergrand before full warm up...(good, but nothing special).

After it got "very hot"...(around two hours)...it was one of the better preamps I've had the pleasure to use in my system.

It's attributes are subtle with noting standing out, however...it digs very deep into the recording if you listen. It has a large outboard power supply...three times the size of my Mantissa...probably why the bass is so good.

Dave