High End 2016 • Hot Product

Many an aging audiophile grew up with electronics from Hafler, Dynaco or both. David Hafler’s Dyna-Kits sprang to life in the 1950s, and he sold boatloads of them over the next couple of decades. In the 1970s, Hafler started a new company under his own name and sold MOSFET-based electronics.

Those two legacy brand names have been acquired by Hafler’s former Canadian distributor, Radial Engineering Ltd., which now seeks to catch a new wave of budget-conscious music lovers looking to squeeze more out of their recorded sound than what passes for music generated by a smartphone and a set of earbuds.

The new Hafler/Dynaco brand was showing a vintage-looking Dynaco the ST-1 tubed preamp ($1650) . . .

. . . and ST70 power amp putting out 35Wpc ($2500).

From Hafler come four phono preamps ranging from $450 for the PH50 to $1100 for the PH34 (31dB gain), a solid-state amplifier putting our 150Wpc (the P3100, top picture, for $1750) and three headphone amps, including one solid-state and two tubed units ranging from $450 to $1350.