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Dennis Had Inspire Fire-Bottle SET amp review

Hello to all,
I have been a tube amp lover for years and foolishly parted with a HK-CII and CV a couple of years ago. I have a Don Sachs 6SN7-based tube preamp that is even better than the HK-CI I had, with all the HK gear upgraded by Don with Jim McShane mods. I recently got a pair of Spatial Audio Hologram M4 open-baffle speakers and wanted to make the foray back to a tube amp. I auditioned a Musical Paradise MP-310 with an unfavorable impression of its sound so I casted about for an affordable ~12 wpc tube amp and ran across a Dennis Had Inspire Bottle-Fire amp. It came with new JJ EL34 tubes which, after a few hours on them, sounded quite good at low SPL, but at maybe 85 db, just sounded awful, with the bass distorted as hell. Well, a buddy laid a pair of KT120's on me to swap for the EL34's, and holy hell, the sound is just fantastic! OMG, I can drive them very nicely to 90db with negligible distortion.

 Here is my take on the amp.   With the KT120's, and a 274B rectifier, this is a quintessential "tube" sounding amp. It gives up a degree of accuracy and control compared to my CJ MF80 SS amp, but ah, Dennis's amp creates such a luxurious warm and euphonic sound, like a "warm wet wall of sound", with and enormous soundstage, far beyond the speakers.  Honestly, I have been in search of exactly this sort of sound for decades and the pairing of Dennis's amp with my OB speakers, which are very conductive to a low-powered SET amp, is just a supreme match. The vast array of power tubes and rectifiers available to roll through this little gem very well might tailor the sound to benefit of many listeners.  My best advice is that if you have compatible speakers, you would be smart to acquire a Dennis Had amp. I feel fortunate that all the knowledge and skills he applied to his Cary Audio line of tube gear is still available to us tube-amp lovers in his current line of tube equipment.  There are lot of fine SET amps available on the market these days, but the price of most of them is quite expensive, out of my budget for sure, but the cost of Dennis's gear is affordable to all music lovers. 
Cheers, Whitestix
whitestix

Showing 1 response by jmcgrogan2

jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Actually Dennis Had’s Fire Bottle line are SEP amps not SET amps. Single Ended Pentode design, as opposed to Single Ended Triodes.

That said, I am very happy to hear that the Fire Bottle lit your fire. It’s always nice to find that *magic* combination or amp/speaker.
Dennis is a great guy to deal with, and very passionate about this hobby.
I enjoyed working with him very much.

However, his KT-88 Fire Bottle SEP amp did not work well at all in my system. He was very helpful sending me all sorts of power tubes and rectifier tubes to try out, but none of them could open the sound up in my room. Eventually I sent the amp back and received a full refund.

I have no qualms, as dealing with Dennis was a pleasure.
I was a bit disappointed though, as I really wanted that little Fire Bottle amp to work *magic* for me. Alas, it was not to be.
FWIW, my speakers sensitivity were 90 dB and a 8 ohm nominal load. Maybe not an optimal match.

Congrats though, and if I recall correctly, there was a long thread about the Dennis’ Inspire amps and preamps on Audio Aficionado.
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