H2O Owner Survey ?

I own a pair of the H2o Signature Monoblocks. I have nothing but praise and respect for Henry, and his amplifiers. It has only been a few months for me, however well into the period of time in which any unforseen anomaly appears in a system that went unnoticed at initial purchase. I am extremely pleased with the performance of these amps and have actually written quite a few words on them...

Click on the links by my moniker, I wrote a "music lover first / audiophile second" review, as well as install and break in notes in my system thread.

I also have the S-250. I listened to three different types of speakers (planar, conventional, and single driver), one at a time of course depending on my preference, powered by this amp and all I can say is that "I have found it"!

As the posters above mentioned, Mr. Henry Ho is a no non-sense low key guy. He seldom participate in discussion forums and does not advertised his product. Like Pkaram, I bought mine without hearing it and just took my chances. Almost three months now since I received the amp and so far, I have no complaints on how the amp sound in my set up.

FWIW, the amp has a trial period and a demo unit can be requested (for a week stay in your system) from Mr. Ho. Maybe the best thing is to hear it first in your rig so you can make your decision.

The Man is willing to let you hear his product in your home.

But he's small, and if he decides there's no money or future in his product, repairs, warranty service, and reliability are questionable.

However, since I haven't heard these, they may be the best thing since sliced bread, and you may find them to be the bargain of the century.

He does allow you to hear them first. Try that with a super amp from your local salon owner. Stereophile says: " A good retailer will allow you to try the product in your home" Yeah, most are pressed hard to allow you to audition in there place after hours with no confusion or noise. Huzzah to Henry Ho and the folks at Juicy Music for pushing a new marketing pardigm.

Anyone willing to spend the money and take the damage risk to send you his product for auditon, must be confident in their sound.

My system is in flux, darn new new everything. So once the pre-amp question is answered, I'll settle in and take Herr Ho up on his offer and see. Steep competition he'll have. I have Threshold, Pass, and VTL 350's to challenge him.

So beware the down side, and be brave!

loon

I also have the Stereo H2O (s-250)in my system. I bought it after visiting Henry last summer when he still lived in Richmond, VA. I bought the amp to use with my Apogee Scintillas that are being refurbished. Meanwhile, I have been using Von Schweikert VR-4.5s with them. I love the way S-250 sounds with my new Supratek Chenin. It is the best sound I have ever coaxed from my system. The stereo units do take quite a while to break-in (read the reviews posted elsewhere.) I also think that the amp is so neutral that the preamp and cables used is very important to the overall sound of your system. I love the way tube equipment sounds so having the tube preamp is ideal in this situation. I do not miss at all having a tube amplifier which is really amazing. While it is hard to imagine my system getting any better than it is, the Scintillas should even take it a few steps further. The amp is very good and well worth an audition. The caveat to what I have written is that only your ears will tell you what is the truth. Either way you go, I wish you well. Bob

I auditioned the H20 S250 for a few weeks in my system early last year.

Best digital switching amplifier I have ever heard. Very analog like, yet not missing any details. Treble was exceptional (every other PWM amp I heard has been subpar in the higher registers).

It definitely requires a top notch pre-amp that can drive the 10kohm input impedence of the H20. Speaker matching is important as always. The H20 amps have a real high damping factor.

In the end, the H20 did not synergize to the degree I had hoped for in my system. Henry was very understanding and dealt with me with the upmost of professionalism.

If I change gear, I would definitely look up H20Audio again.