Back to the Future: Part Two--Hovland

[Robinson_A]

In the spirit of Jerry's post regarding his new Mark Levinson No.40, I recently aquired a Hovland HP-100 tube pre-amp for my two channel setup. The HP-100 was one of those products I heard way back in the day (back in college when I had NO money) that I said to myself...one day. Well, last week my day arrived and I picked up my new HP-100 from Hovland here in LA. It's still breaking in the but the sonic improvements have been anything but subtle. This thing is AMAZING. While my focus remains on home theater and multi-channel music it's been a nice change of pace having a two channel rig that is starting to take shape and sound utterly fantastic. Pairing the HP-100 with my Bel Canto Ref1000's has proved to be rather eye opening. I thought I had formed my opinnions about the Ref1000's a while ago, but with the HP-100 in my home their performance has been taken to a whole other level. Of course the HP-100 is no slouch either. Not to mention stunning in the looks department.

I've lived without a dedicated two channel system for some time now, and while my home theater has been such that it has always excelled at two channel music there is no over looking what speciality components can bring to a system.