bass, warmth, soundstage, kicks ass

Review for the DH-220. Excellent bass extension and warmth (love those MOSFETs), beautiful soundstage. Better than some amps I''ve had, but not as neutral or detailed as other (more expensive - higher-class) amps. This amp does kick some serious butt. Great "Wow!" factor.

Similar Products Used:

B&K ST140, Yamaha M-40, Alesis RA-100, Parasound HCA, Samson Servo, NAD

They work well and efficiently. They run cool and clean and are a great value for the money. Solid construction.

Not a lot a reserve power with the Magnepans, especially at high listening levels.

I have a pair of these amps which I am using to bi-amp a set of Magnepan 3As. The Hafler DH-200s are rock solid performers with good, clean, reliable sound for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, NAD.

Clean sound driving efficient speakers. Excellent value. Can be bridged for mono operation.

At under $200, none worth mentioning.

A great classic amp. Clean sound, trouble free for over 15 years. If you need a reliable 100 watts for not a lot of money - find one on ebay, audio review, or audiogon.

Similar Products Used:

Tandberg 3006A

Extremely rugged, excellent sound, can drive low impedence loads

Poor quality input jacks - they are relatively easy to replace.

I have 2 model DH-220 units - a 1984 and 1986 model. I have owned the 1986 model since it was new and it has performed well. This amplifier sounds much better than even today's "mid fi" A/V receivers. It even survived a lightning strike that trashed all of my other equipment. I constructed the 1984 model for my fraternity house's sound system. Last year, they bought a new system and gave me the old Hafler. It only needed a fuseholder to work perfectly. Any amplifier that can survive 15 years of wide open party operation has to be good. I think it is near impossible to find amps built as sturdy today without spending a lot of money.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Onkyo

Drives the tough low impedance loads with no trouble. Cheap and clean power.

Not many at this price

I am not an expert on amplifiers, but from what others say and from what I have heard come out of the system it is great for the price. The technical specs are excellent. I have not heard many high-end systems so I don't have much to compare it to. This drives my Acoustat Model Twos that have 4 ohms impedance with no trouble at all.

Similar Products Used:

Technics receiver (cheap), various all in ones

I've had this amp for about a year, which I picked up for only $20. I also have a Adcom GFA-545 that I have had for 2 years. I've spent allot of time comparing the 2 amps against each other with different speakers. I can say without question that the Hafler is a much better amp than the Adcom. The Adcom is much more harsh in the midrange and treble, were the Hafler is smooth and liquid. The soundstage and imaging is about the same for both amps, but the bass is on the Adcom slightly better. I've seen the amps go for around $200 on ebay and for that price it is a great deal. I know that basically stole mine. I was just at the right place at the right time. The only down side of this amp is parts are hard to come by if it breaks.
5 Stars all the way. Buy one if you can, you won't be dissapointed.

Equipment:
Adcom GTP-500II
Paradigm Reference Esprit/BP
Marantz CC-55 CD Player

One of the cleanest great sounding amps of all time, has the power reserves to drive most speakers.

None that I'm aware of

I've used this amp(my model is the DH-220) for 15yrs. I refuse to trade it in. For the money it is still one the finest sounding amps availible. Paired with my DH-110 Preamp it's an great combination. Now days you can pick one up used in the $200-$300 price range. If I ever add a sub. to my Bookselve speakers you can bet I'll Be adding a second Hafler DH220 To drive that. I highly recomend Hafler Amps to any audio enthusiast.

Similar Products Used:

SAE,Hafler 120 Amp, 110 Preamp

Rugged, neutral, reasonably detailed, cheap.

Thin bass, small power supply (38 joules!), Input impedance too low to use with tube preamps, which it needs.

Here's some good advice if you're thinking of buying this amp used. I had it for 5 years. It can be very musical only if the bias is set correctly. But the problem is that it is very touchy and not easy to set. My experience is that both channels needs to be set at the same time since warmup will cause it to drift as much as 15% (imaging will suffer if the channels differ by more than 10mA). I remember my old Fuselier 3.3 speakers letting me hear all this. What amazing speakers! You will need at least 15 minutes warmup before you can set it accurately. I found the unit sounds best when set at 230mA. A little higher and the sound gets dark and slow. A little too low and the sound gets thin and hard. Unlike most other amps for some reason it does absolutely no good to upgrade the carbon film resistors on this amp to metal film (I've done it). But changing C1 to a good film or teflon cap (3-4uF) and upgrading all the mylar caps to foil and film polypropylenes will make the amp more dynamic and transparent, to where it will ourperform (in my opinion) the stock DH220 (unstable DC offset) and XL280 (ultrasonic ringing) which replaced it. If you have to bypass the electrolytics on the board, use .33uF. After all this work it will still be lightyears behind the better under $1000 amps made today using FET front ends and bipolar outputs. So why bother? Because this is still the best $150 amp you can buy if you must have 100 watts.

Similar Products Used:

PS 100C, Robertson 4010, PSE Studio IV, Apt 1

Clean cheap power. 300 watts each mono-bridged!

None!

I use two of these mono-bridged to run a pair of klipsch
RF-3's. Originally I was running the klipsch's using a Onkyo TX-DS787 but they sounded a little bright. I hooked the DH-200's to the Onkyo's pre-outs and WOW! The brightness
is gone and its like the band is now in the room with me!
For the money you cant beat these little champs mono-bridged! I will never sell them.

Similar Products Used:

Hafler XL-280, Proton D1200, Onkyo M506RS

Solid as a rock construction. Very, very smooth. What a great amp.

none yet

Bought this for my secondary system in the living room. Just 2 channel stereo. This amp is so old and sounds so good I can't believe my ears. What a great deal. If you can find one on e-bay, grap it, you won't be disappointed.