Best Digital Amp for Legacy Focus 20/20?

If I may - this will seem off topic but isn't really. Go to www.realtraps.com (no relation to me) and look at their room response videos. When you then realize the extent of the room effects on specific frequencies, you know intuitively that you MUST audition in your own circumstances to know how something will sound.

My buddy's amazing sounding speakers sucked badly in his friend's listening room, and in mine (different amps, yes, but different ROOMS.)

Muralman touts H2O and I can't blame him - Henry is a great guy and he generously allowed me TWO auditions. While a friend of mine LOVED AND BOUGHT the S250 on the spot (converting a tube lover), so did HIS friend (another even more fanactical tube guy) who has speakers the same as mine. On MY system, to MY ears in MY room, my tube amp held the magic, and I couldn't get the H20 to equal it (even though I wanted to do business with Henry, loved his build quality, the price, the convenience.)

You read YMMV frequently in these posts. That's NOT a casual remark as you will learn on the REALTRAPS site.

Good one Woodburger. In no way will I say the H2O is the best amp for everyone. We all have at least slightly different expectations. There is no substituting something else for tubes for a die hard tube lover. The H2O review by Sajran at 6moons bore that out. For me, as well as Sajran, the H2O does mimic tubes to an extent. I think it's sound closer to tubes than to solid state. Given it runs cool, and you never have to roll tubes, it is a good alternative.

The room is the thing.... I have heard SET amps. With the right speakers, the sound is captivating in a small space. (Need that sub, though)

See.......it wasn't that hard to agree with me. Was it?

Anyway......if you look at the data sheets......it is there for all to see: Frequency response for 3 different load conditions. All 3 are different.

I'm not agreeing with you about anything. You don't have a clue what my amps sound like. They don't sound like yours. I have never heard two ICE amps that sound the same.

Yeah, all three are below .05 THD + N up to near full power, which I never approach. even with my >dead short speakers.

Sure, the graphs look wildly divergent, until you realize the minute parameters, now you see .005 compared to .05 THD. Big deal.

OK, getting back to Huck's question...can a digital amp do a good job of driving the very current hungry Focus 20/20?

I have the Focus too (and I love them) and have found that changing amps has a dramatic effect on the speaker's performance. Since these speakers can dip below 2 ohms, I seem to be most rewarded by amps that can deliver big current (although I have only tried a handful of amps).

From my limited experience, power (watts) seems to have little if any effect on performance. I say this beacause I went from 1200 W/ch to 350 w/ch and had a great improvement because the 350 watt amp could deliver more current...or at least that has been my conclusion so far.

Full circle now - can the H20 or other digital amps from Rowland and other companies do the job for this kind of current demanding load?

Thanks-