Hafler preamps - good, not so good, and history?

As a former owner of several Hafler products (both preamps and amps), I was saddened when David Hafler died. Over the decades since the 1950's, his products and designs made it possible for a lot of audio enthusiasts on limited budgets to enjoy high quality sound reproduction in their homes. His classic tube preamps and power amps are still being used by a lot of people, and provided the basis for the products still being sold by "Audio by van Alstine" (see this link for more info:
http://www.avahifi.com/root/about/greeting.htm)

My last experience with the Dynaco line of preamps and amps was far too many years ago to offer a comment, but I did own several of Hafler's solid state products during the 1980's (which I had modified by Musical Concepts). The Hafler DH-110 was a pretty decent preamp for its price (particularly if you bought the kit and assembled it yourself). It was hardly the last word in transparency or imaging, but it had decent dynamics and was musically accurate. The DH-110 was a much better preamp that its immediate predecessor, the DH-100. I have an old Web site link to a Hafler discussion forum, although I am not sure how active the site is. Here is the link:
http://www.hafler.com/techsupport/forum/default.asp?CAT_ID=6

If I were looking for an inexpensive, used solid state preamp, I would buy an Adcom GFP-565 (which I also owned), which was a much better preamp than the Hafler DH-110. The Adcom 565 is often sold here on Audiogon for around $300, and it offers a fine value at that price.

I've been looking at Adcom 565's. Great minds...

There's also a Quad 34 for sale here that looks interesting, but I know little about Quad gear. I need a phono stage since I have lots of old vinyl and an old Thorens to play them on.

Just listed my Dyna PAT-4 here as a fixer-upper, BTW. Wish I'd done the same with my deceased Stereo 120 instead of putting it out with the trash. Somebody could have got it working again and given a bit of audio history a good home.

My recent return to audio has been a real Rip van Winkle/Through the Looking Glass experience!

Bcoppola, welcome back to the audio world. I too was in a Rip Van Winkle state and when I awoke, it was a different world. I commenced to reading through as many of the threads in the discussion forums that I could. That was two years ago. So far, what I have found is a world taken over by the internet, at least in the high end of audio. Since the late 70's technology has advanced quite a bit,especially in the digital realm. In other areas I found that "the more things change, the more they stay the same". I also had a Hafler DH101 preamp modified by Musical Concepts and sold it when I awoke from my long slumber; I wish I had kept it for nostalgic sake. I practiically gave it away because of my naiveness. I hope you get your little nostalgic system up and running soon and begin to enjoy your music once again.

Should add that a NAD 114 has caught my eye, too. But still very interested in the Hafler history.

To put it simple, the Hafler DH-110 is probably one of the best(if not the best) "budget Audiophile" preamp on the used market today. They can be found on eBay anywhere from $50-$150(depending on condition). For decades(literally!) people have claimed that the Hafler DH-110 "sounds better than it has a right to". I for one would have to agree with that statement.