I just bought my first BRAND NEW tube amp. Dennis Had Inspire SET H.O.

[ictwoody]

I've owned lots of tube gear. Given, not as much as a lot of guys... but a pretty good amount. Last night on impulse I bought the first piece of brand new tube equipment I've ever bought, well, outside of tube dac's and buffers. I picked up one of Dennis Had's Inspire Firebottle HO SET amps.

I've been looking at these for over a year and he posted a new one on eBay yesterday, where he sells all of them, and it's the model I wanted so I jumped on it.

If you aren't familiar with Dennis, he was the founder of Cary Audio. I've messaged with him and he says he thinks these new amps he's building for fun now are superior sonically to anything he ever did with Cary... which is saying a lot.

Some of the big appeals of this amp for me is the fact that is a true stand alone power amp. I plan to use it with my Modwright SWL9.0 SE preamp and I don't like it when builders put a passive attenuator in the amps to make them "integrated." Also, it's a tube rollers dream. I have KT120's, KT150's and EL34 pairs all on hand as well as some different 5AR4's for rectification. This amp is good for 3-7+ watts depending on tube compliment and should work nicely with my Tang Band 8" fullrangers and my Altec Onken's. As well as some planned Altec based builds.

Here are the pictures from the auction. I will have the amp next week and will post pics once I have it up and running.

Anyone else have experience with Dennis' products? I know there have been other threads, but this one is mine.

- Woody

 

[asilker]

Nice clean layout under there.

So am I correct in understanding that this amp triode straps pentodes? (Or in otherwise can it also run in SEP mode)

 

[Fitero]

I've followed his products on Ebay for several years now.

I look forward to reading your impressions as you swap in different tubes.

Thanks for the pics!

 

[drtool]

 

[analog addict]

That's a triode strapped amp. From my experience listening to that design, anything bigger than KT-88s or perhaps KT90s will provide a bit more power, but not necessarily better sound. I've really liked 6V6s and KT-77s, and lean towards old production tubes as well but as always, YMMV.

 

[ictwoody]

That's a triode strapped amp. From my experience listening to that design, anything bigger than KT-88s or perhaps KT90s will provide a bit more power, but not necessarily better sound. I've really liked 6V6s and KT-77s, and lean towards old production tubes as well but as always, YMMV.

I have new production Tung-Sol KT-120's that I'm not using right now. I also have a nice set of Amperex EL34's. I have an extra Mullard Notched Black Plate 5AR4 rectifier. I have old and new production Tung-Sol 6550's as well, but those are for another pair of amps that are waiting to be restored, but I could roll them in just to see how they compare to the JJ's. Should be fun. I love that I can just get pairs to roll... 4x gets expensive for PP amps all the time.

Looking forward to it.

- Woody

 

[analog addict]

I think you're gonna like it. If you want to really talk about the amp once you've listened to it for awhile, Audio Aficionado has a 420 (heh) page thread on just Dennis' Inspire Amps and all related topics. 4194 posts and counting.

 

[Redboy]

Noice! Seems like you oughta try some single-ended EL84s someday.

I'll be curious to see what you think of your new toy. It looks great!

 

[x3workshop]

You are going to love that amp. I certainly love the sound of mine mated with his LP-27a pre. And yes, that thread over on Audio Aficionado is quite formidable, but has quite a bit of useful info if you sift through it all.

 

[IPADave]

Very nice, Woody! Looking forward to hearing your impressions.

-Dave

 

[ictwoody]

Noice! Seems like you oughta try some single-ended EL84s someday.

I'll be curious to see what you think of your new toy. It looks great!

Now.... just to finish more Altecs to try with it.

And I still miss those SEP EL84 amps. So much.

– Woody

 

[Destructor]

I have two of his older products when he was creating kits from Audio Electronic Supply. I assembled the SE-1 300B amp and some years later the PP Superamp. I wired it in triode mode. Two of my very best sounding amplifiers and both rock solid dependable.

 

[Redboy]

Now.... just to finish more Altecs to try with it.

And I still miss those SEP EL84 amps. So much.

Yeah, I should have kept 'em, myself... So I'm building another pair of them at the moment.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Very nice. I love mine, which is configured quite differently than yours. My speakers are not sufficiently efficient to run it in triode mode.

The overall sound is so open and natural.

 

[biscuithead]

Noice! Seems like you oughta try some single-ended EL84s someday.

I'll be curious to see what you think of your new toy. It looks great!

I have one of Dennis' SE EL84 Inspire amps... It is wonderful! I use a simple passive pre, and right now they are hooked into some Klipsch... a very wonderful sound at 50% power.

 

[rogerfederer]

 

[rjw1678]

I have new production Tung-Sol KT-120's that I'm not using right now. I also have a nice set of Amperex EL34's. I have an extra Mullard Notched Black Plate 5AR4 rectifier. I have old and new production Tung-Sol 6550's as well, but those are for another pair of amps that are waiting to be restored, but I could roll them in just to see how they compare to the JJ's. Should be fun. I love that I can just get pairs to roll... 4x gets expensive for PP amps all the time.

Looking forward to it.

- Woody

Another tube that is interesting in the new production Tung-Sol 7581a. They are very musical and very nicely balanced from the lowest low to highest high, very smooth in the high frequencies without any harshness. They are basically a 6L6 with more headroom. I have an Inspire Hot Rod and I have tried new production Genalex Gold Lion KT66, Tung-Sol KT150 and NOS National Union 350b tubes, but I like the new production Tung-Sol 7581a best. The Inspire Hot Rod is a SEP instead of a SET, but it uses the same tubes as your new Inspire amp - the Inspire Hot Rod has a little more power.

 

[ictwoody]

Pics. Initial impressions are very favorable. Plenty of power for my Tang-Band's in this 7wpc configuration with the included tubes. I'm going to listen for a good bit before I start tube rolling. Really nice amp though. I'll post more thoughts when I've done some more critical listening. Just been letting it play in the background all day while I worked from home. I only sat an listened for about an hour last night.

- Woody

 

[Tubeglowpio]

Yeah, I should have kept 'em, myself... So I'm building another pair of them at the moment.

I know I've seen your mono blocks somewhere, forget if those were pp or se? If you have a good tested design that beats a rh84 please let me know. I'm looking to do another build real soon and saved up about 1500 so looking for a really fine circuit to build wether el84, 300b or 2a3 single ended.

 

[Tubeglowpio]

Pics. Initial impressions are very favorable. Plenty of power for my Tang-Band's in this 7wpc configuration with the included tubes. I'm going to listen for a good bit before I start tube rolling. Really nice amp though. I'll post more thoughts when I've done some more critical listening. Just been letting it play in the background all day while I worked from home. I only sat an listened for about an hour last night.

- Woody

I wanted to pull the trigger on that exact one that was on eBay but didn't have enough at the time. Its one of the already built tube amps I've been considering as I really enjoy diy. I reached out to Dennis through eBay a month or two ago and haven't heard back was hoping to get more info. Looking forward to hearing more impressions of these amps. Enjoy.