Hafler DH200 or Son of Ampzilla? Which to use?


Which of these old work horses is best? For those of you not old enough to remember the mid 70's, never mind. I wonder if ss amps have really gotten that much better over time.
jw94055
My preference( I'm familiar with both of them) would be the Hafler DH200. I would also encourage you to get an upgrade mod from Musical Concepts and then it should compete with most amps even today.I don't know what your speakers are, but my Hafler amp was driving some Vandersteen 2B speakers with very synergistic results.
It's not that amps have gotten that much better over time, it's the fact that these were (especially the Hafler) low priced amps. I built a DH200 from a kit in '78, did a few mods to it and cranked the bias way up toward class A. It runs a toasty warm and it is still in my daughter's system. Kind of dark sounding overall but still working after 26 years. On the other hand, I also owned a Threshold 400A back then which sounded wonderful and still does to this day.
It depends on which version of the SON you have. The original version was really great and the later on not nearly as good. I owned both the son and hafler years ago and my early son was wonderful until I lost a channel and when it came back from repair, one channel had a different circuit board so the channels sounded different. The DH-200 is probably the safest bet. If you have questions, E-mail me

Dave