Hafler Troubles??

[Wiggus]

Hey all,
I'm perplexed, confused and dismayed. I needed a cheap, decent power amp for my small home studio to power my KRK ST8's. I borrowed a friends spare Hafler TA 1100 and it did a great job. He uses the other one daily, and has an older Hafler (different model) that needs recapped, but he loved that one as well. So I set out on an Ebay search for my own Hafler TA 1100.

Here's my confusion. I've bought two on Ebay recently and both have sounded terrible when A/B-ing them with my friend's. The first I sent back because it was damaged in shipping, which I thought lead to it sounding terrible. Then I found another one to replace it, and it sounds terrible in exactly the same way.

Both have been quieter, and starkly thin sounding; very little bottom, exaggerated high end that is painful. They sound that way when hooked up to the speakers or monitoring from the headphone jack on the front. My friends sounds great from both speakers and from the headphones.

I used the unbalanced inputs on all of the amps, running out of my Mackie Big Knob. And it doesn't matter which set of outputs I use from the Big Knob, the old amp sounded good, and the ones I bought sounded bad.

Anyone have any troubles with Hafler amps, or hear of a bad batch of these things making it out onto the market? The one thing I did not do was compare the serial numbers, as the first one I bought was returned already. I'm ready to throw my hands up.

[Wiggus]

BUMP

[hanuman]

The series you have are designed by hafler but made in the 'east'. I have 2 TA1600's that are sound, though both produce a hum. Hafler sent a scheme (before they went out of business) so we can try to fix the hum from ourselves.
So, to answer yor question; the TA series might have batch problems. Did you try to run yours without the big knob?
Anyway try your electronic repaiman and if that does not work try to get a Bryston.

Hafler could have been still in the industry. They did not assign enough money to their pro-audio dpt. It was run by not so professional people and the stopped their product development to soon. Pity, they had a point.

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by hanuman

Anyway try your electronic repaiman and if that does not work try to get a Bryston.

Yes, if you cannot repair your cheapo, asian-built amp, try to buy one of the most expensive amps out there.

Seriously, though...move up to the Hafler Transnova line. The P1500 or P3000 will do fine work, and are 100% made in the USA.

[cfdude]

The older pro5000 and pro6000 are really good too.

[phaqu]

Originally Posted by cfdude

The older pro5000 and pro6000 are really good too.

No problem with the PRO5000 yet. Bought it used 10 years (or more) ago and it still delivers. It drives my nearfields like a champ.

[mbrebes]

The TA series has some surface mount parts of dubious quality. They are the only Haflers I would not recommend. If I remember, I had to repair one that had a similar sounding problem in one channel only. It was either a dead surface mount resistor or capacitor.
I have a Transnova P3000 that still works great. I even have the original D500 that I bought as a kit. Still running strong at just under 300 watts a side into 8 ohms.

[boojum]

Two hafler DH500's mono-bridged. DH110 pre-amp and the matching FM tuner. They work and have worked just fine for ~25 years. A great line of hardware. I am looking for a 120 or 200 watter to drive some Paradigms for near fields. I have had such good luck with hafler that I am not straying.

[pureform media]

I interned at a place where we ran a Hafler 2500 to a pair of Auratone supersound cubes...it was glorious! never experienced any problems with that hafler amp

[hanuman]

I got the tip of another Hafler user: use 'power conditioner (Furman or so.)'. Many of the cheaper Haflers have hum orso that can be annihilated with 'cleaning'.