H20 Revisited

I may have been too hasty with the V-caps. I tried them through 2 months. When I switched to the Sonicaps, they sounded great to my ears from the start.

There is no soldering class needed. Some Wonder Solder and a cheap gun is all you need. You just soften the hold of the V-Caps, and replace with the others the same way by heating the plate and wire then applying the solder.

You have to be sure the caps, and wires are slung low, so they don't short on the amp lid.

It's a snap. I am no electrician, but I built myself a DAC. starting yesterday. The right speaker sounds marvelous, but the left is doing it's best imitation of the Amttyville Horror House. Like I said, I am no electrician.

I have owned a pair of the H2o Signature Mono's in the past, and now currently have the H2o Singature Mono Special Edition's.

These are Henry's all out assault on what he can do in a pair of mono's. Henry is using the V-Caps in these monos as well as a few other design tweaks.

As for the Sonicap Platinum vs. V-Cap my older pair had the Sonicap Platinums and while very good, the V-Caps are clearly superior to my ears, cleaner, more lifelike dynamics, pristine extension with no source of grain...

Vince - the V-Caps do take a long time to break in, and do not sound great until that happens... :/

I have had three sets of tube monoblocks in between my first pair of H2o mono's and this current pair. While my personal preferences lean toward the sense of spacial cues a good tube amp has, the H2o paired with a great tube preamp will give you 95% of a great tube amp sense of spaciousness. On top of that you gain better transparency, startling dynamic prowess, liquid midrange, etc., etc.

One important point with the bypass caps. Unplug the unit and discharge the big electrolytic caps before working on the unit. There is significant voltage waiting to zap you.

Also the stock binding posts are nickle-plated. Just about any other Cardas model will fit the chassis holes and sound better. You must disconnect the module leads because high temperature is required to solder the binding posts and is enough to damage the amp.

Bob

Which V-caps? The OIMPs or the TFTFs?

Audiofrankj: I'm curious if Henry has the Special Edition available for the Stereo 250 Signature too. I couldn't find anything on his website about it. I am also using a tubed preamp with my H20--an Audio Research Reference 2 modified by Great Northern Sound with great effect including the attributes that you mention including that fabulous liquid midrange and spaciousness.

Vince: When Henry installed my V-Caps he broke them in for about 2 weeks. Before he sent the amp back to me, he e-mail me that he was a little worried about the sound until they started to break in but once they did he was elated and stated that "my H20 set new standards" at least at that time. I've recently upgraded both speaker cables and Interconnects from my preamp to the H20 with more improvement in sound. I borrowed a whole bunch of cables from The Cable Company's lending library to tune in even better sound. It is amazing how changing cables can affect one's impression of this amp. It is so sensitive to changes and I can see that with the wrong cables one might not be impressed with the H20.

Dotsystem: He did replaced the nickel binding posts with Cardas as you had recommended to me in the past. Thanks for that suggestion.