New Dennis Had amps

Doesn’t sound very “retired” to me.  Guess when you do what you truly love you never work a day in your life.  Reminds me quite a bit of Don Sachs.  

Mr. Had's amp work sounds much like Nelson Pass with First Watt amps.  Coincidentally I replaced Had designed Cary Audio 2a3 SET monoblocks with First Watt F3s.  I feel that wrought a nice improvement in SQ with the midrange and super tweeter drivers of my triamplified fully horn loaded DIY speakers.

They look good, I have a nice Cary preamp to drive them...

Thanks @isaacc7 

I agree. It would be great to make wonderful creations for fun and profit!

Alas, I’ll always be an end user.

Dennis Had was the chief engineer/designer at Cary audio

give credit where it is due, dennis had founded cary audio, and was the sole owner before its sale

I've owned a Had Firebottle HO (allegedly "high output") for years and it's brilliant, and handles pretty much any power tubes of the "KT" variety with aplomb...most recently KT66s for some inexplicable reason. Got it barely used for around 1100 bucks in early 2017, and it's signed by Dennis as built on 12/01/2016. A thing of beauty that really shines with efficient speakers like my Heresy IIIs. I swap it out for my current fave (a Pass XA-25...tubeless but also brilliant) from time to time if I feel sorry for it on the shelf. 

I’m definitely in love with my SLI-100, the evolution of Dennis’s SLI-80- paired with my Cornwall IV’s. 
The never fatiguing and warm sound, yet somehow retains detail. 
Can’t wait to get my listening room finished. 

Oh oh….

I bought a Dennis Had Firebottle. Never used it because I scored a nice tube integrated.   I have it up for sale .    Perhaps I should reconsider??

I wonder if he has a protege doing the buliding and he is having fun designing.

Love it! Makes me want to put on some Robin Trower!

give credit where it is due, dennis had founded cary audio, and was the sole owner before its sale

@jjss49 that was good to point that out.

@mwb1 you never even tried it? I mean yeah, you should try it before selling. How else would you know which amp to keep?

Anyone know how to contact Dennis to purchase an amp?

@tinear123  ,

if you go on Ebay, using "Dennis Had for  search engine might get you there and you could 'message user.'  I believe his Ebay name is "Radioman" but I am not positive. 

In E Bay you can just search Inspire Amp.

@tinear123 you could also try posting on the audio aficionado site. He is known to read the posts there. He has also sold stuff there but you have to be a paying member to access the for sale forum. I don’t think he has anything posted there right now. 

Had lists his amps on Ebay generally and fairly often. His prices have gone up but are still a relative bargain for a world class hand made amp. I emailed him (his Ebay address) when I first bought my amp and he was surprised that the last guy had sold it...I use mine with an original version Schiit Freya preamp and I seriously doubt there is an integrated amp that sounds anywhere near as good as these two relatively inexpensive items used together. 

Thanks for starting this thread and sharing the link. As an Inspire owner I’m always interested in seeing new stuff and hearing experiences from fellow users. My HO Firebottle is dated 1/27/16, and has a small driver tube ( E88CC).  I believe that right after that Dennis switched to an octal driver. I’ve rolled everything except     EL-34’s . I have 6 different rectifier tubes, and about 8 different driver tubes, almost all of both are NOS. Most of the time I prefer KT-120’s as I like classic rock. The KT-120’s and KT-150’s give me the desired bass for rock. However with NOS GEC KT-66 and KT-88’s the sound is sweet ! Also the now hard to find SED Winged C in 6L6 and 6550 are the best compromise between the original NOS Gold Lions and the full range of the modern KT 120 and 150. I’m also appreciative of the contributions about Pass and First Watt. I’m currently playing a modded Akitika SS amp and really enjoy it. I’ve been pining over a First Watt and the Akitika has definitely elevated my desire to try one. I haven’t had a conversation with Dennis in a few years, but he’s very approachable and is all about the hobby. I’ll share that I blew up my amp about 4 years ago. I had installed a fresh set of modern Gold Lion KT-66 and at about 10 hours of use I heard a huge pop and a loud bang from my left Zu Omen. I immediately shut it down. The amp blew up part of the power supply due to a failed tube, per Dennis. I opened the bottom and observed paper and oil on everything and a melted resistor , blown capacitor and a broken terminal strip. I shipped it to Dennis, he repaired it and sent it back. I was up and running in 3 weeks. Although the amp was two years old Dennis repair and shipped the amp back for free. How many people do that ! I insisted on paying something, and Dennis said ok , how about one hundred dollars. So my opinion is his amps are one of the Best Buy’s in the audio community and he is a true gentleman. Happy Listening my friends , and have a blessed Thanksgiving. 

Is the older Cary SLP-94 still a good preamp for one of these amplifiers?

@buellrider97 , thanks for sharing that. I always got the impression that Dennis was a good dude back when he was running Cary, and although I am still listening to Cary products, the company doesn’t seem as good without him

It would be of interest to learn why DH left Cary Audio?

Happy Listening!

@jafant I get the idea that he wanted to retire. Running a business is a lot of work. Now he sets his own schedule, does what he wants, and makes a few bucks on the side. Not a bad way to live!

isaacc7

Thank You for the follow up. Nothing wrong with Retirement. In this case, those faithful customers who built Cary Audio were left behind.

Happy Listening!