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

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.

In terms of Hafler history - maybe this is what you are interested in - I was one of the initial Hafler dealers - my partners and I where starting a Hi-Fi/Record store - heard a rumor that David Hafler was going to start a new company - sent him $300 as a downpayment on three of whatever he was going to do - his reputation from the Dynace days was that good! While I am out of the industry now - here's what I remember in terms of Hafler:
1.) Initial products were the DH-101 pre-amp. Had a interesting experience shortly after these started to ship. Stopped by Hafler's suite at the Summer (Chicago) CES show. A trio of Japenese engineer's where leaving as we came in. If memory serves me this was like some very senior designer for Sony plus a assistant and a interperter. David Hafler had this odd expression on his face and comented that they had been amazed that he used such expensive transistors in the 101 pre-amp - what amazed him was that he was only paying something like 5 or 6 CENTS apiece - and couldn't believe anyone could find/use anything cheaper! (especially since Sony got a whole lot better price based on their volume purchased than he did). So I asked him what was the single most expensive component in the DH-101 - whithout hesitation he said the chasis. Now I was blown away - 101 where great sounding units for their era - but the chassis was hardly awe inspiring - not exactly Mark Levinson quality. he explained that the chasis and PC board where the only unique items in the design - all the other parts where off the shelf components used in a lot of different electronic products by a wide variety of manufactorers - thus getting the unit cost per part down for everybody - the chasis was unique and at that time was being made in runs of a few hundrerd - which made it quite expensive.
The man was simply a genius when it came to employing engineers who could get a awful lot of good sound out of garden variety component parts - and at prices that allowed many of us to "dable" in high end audio while still eating three squares.
2.) DH-200 power amp was next 100/100 wpc mos-fet output devices.
3.) 110 pre-amp has for it's time a full featured pre-amp with multi tape inputs - was shortly joined by the smaller chasis 100 pre-amp - a stripper model that may have been the best sounding pre-amp of the lot. 330 was a FM tuner.
4.) The 220 amp - basically a up-date and olive drab version of the 200 with I think just a little more power - still mos-fet.
5.) DH-500 - an honest 255 wpc - fan cooled
6.) DH-120 60 wpc - my favorite small amp that can - I still own one of these.
7.)All of the above were in their day - reliable - repairable if grossly abused and very good sounding for their time and price. All were available in kit form as well as factory assembled.All the amps used MOS-FET output devices - which is part of the reason they where so hard to blow up. These amps all have a common and somewhat un-usual arraingment of the "protection " fuses - you can blow this fuse and you will still get distorted sound out of the affected channel - this was the most common service complaint on the amps and almost always - a proper sized fuse and you were good to go!
8.) I don't know if David Hafler sold the company before the SE series came out or the XL series - but somwhere in here ownership changed.
9.) SE series where cosmetically a little differnt - used film caps at some crtical points to improve sound.
10.) XL-600 305 wpc ,XL-280 ,XL-240 - don't think there was a 60 watt version - had some input from the people who designed the Acoustat TransNova power amps.
11.) I didn't have real good luck with the Iris pre-amp - ours where the only Hafler products I ever sold that weren't real reliable. In general the big deal at the time with Iris components was the remote and like a lot of small companies - Hafler had problems implementing this - especially when compared to your average Japenese super' ceiver - which tended to have flawless IR remotes.
Rockford Fosgate owns the Hafler name at this point - big points to them for publishing complete manuals /schematics for all the older Hafler stuuf - especially given they never sold this era gear or made a dime off of it.
I realize that some of the Hafler / rockford/fosgate stuff is (gag) car stereo - but has anyone had much experience with their current line of Hafler amps?

I recently bought a used Hafler Iris preamp and I must say it is a welcome addition to my system. Right away I noticed how transparent, musical and non-fatiguing this preamp is. As stated in the owners manual, it seems to have achieved its goal of combining the best characteristics of tubes and solid state. I have no qualms about this preamp and the price was a steal for such quality. F.R. Ps: I've never enjoyed analog more. The Iris's phono section is amazing!