Posted by Mark Allen on September 29, 2004 at 09:02:56:
As I own both Apogee Duetta Signatures and a pair of SoundLab A-1s I have been looking to purchase an amp that will drive them both equally well (unfortunately my Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 amp drives the Apogees superbly but takes significant strain when it comes to driving the SoundLab A-1s at any kind of decent level!).
Some of you might have heard of the H2O amp that is getting rave reviews from Apogee owners on the Apogee Users group. I was privileged to spend a very pleasant afternoon with its designer, Henry Ho, listening to this amp drive a pair of Scintillas, with outstanding results - to say that I was extremely impressed with its performance would be an understatement. As it is a digital amp I believe that it would be very capable of driving the SoundLab (witness the excellent results that have been obtained with the Rowland 201) but I would like to make sure that these two components work well together before I take the leap and buy a pair of monoblock H2Os. Henry has very kindly agreed to provide H2O amps for this purpose and, even more kindly, to actually be on hand for the audition so that he can hear the results! The only problem is that my A-1s are currently in storage :-(
Is there anyone who owns a pair of A-1s or U-1s and who lives within a 3-4 hour driving range from Richmond, VA who would be willing to participate in this type of audition?
Thanks,
Mark Allen.