I bought a HOVLAND Sapphire cheap from a dealer because Hovland company was gone earlier this year.
It's a beautiful amp to look at and the build quality is very good. The sound Is also at very high class, but the bass is not so slam as good transistor amplifiers or good Icepower based amps. It sound very open and very homogeneous. The instruments in the orchestra is well placed in the right position they are located. This feature is common for all Hovland products. Together with my very well sounding HP-200 the Sapphire gives a musicality you never get tired to listen to. I use this combo on a set of Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario speakers which also sound very well. It seems that 2x40 "Sapphire" watt drive this speakers good enough. This speakers are 4ohms and I have used it on the 4 and 8ohms tapping but found it most suitable on the 4ohms. On 8ohms tapping I get more gain and perhaps more dynamic but also a small sign to distortion with higher volume. I have also done some tube rolling and found that the sound increased when replace the two JJ 12AU7 (ECC82) with a set of Ei's or NOS Mullard or Telefunken.
I will highly recommend this Sapphire amplifier to all speakers with normal or high sensitivity. Sorry that Hovland is gone so you have to find it in the used market.