Amp, New vs Old

[dbpolk]

Would you rather have old Hafler XL-600, (300 watts) or a new emotiva (250 watts) for about the same price. Both are two channel. I have rather fond memories of the old haflers from college. But don't know if the technology has changed for the better to be better served with a new amp. I know the old ones can be a little more troublesome, but hey so can the new ones sometimes!
Thanks for your opinion

 

[radridd]

Very happy with my Emotiva XPA-5, but like you my only experience with amps is with older Adcoms. I am sure there are better options but happy with this one for now. Hard to complain about the price!

 

[pearsall001]

Would you rather have old Hafler XL-600, (300 watts) or a new emotiva (250 watts) for about the same price. Both are two channel. I have rather fond memories of the old haflers from college. But don't know if the technology has changed for the better to be better served with a new amp. I know the old ones can be a little more troublesome, but hey so can the new ones sometimes!
Thanks for your opinion

Tough decision you have there. I was in the same boat as you & decided on a Vintage 1980 Nikko Alpha VI amp (300w dual mono design). This particular amp was actually designed & built by Luxman for Nikko. In fact I was running a Krell KAV 250a at the time (sold it), but the Nikko won over. It simply performs as if I just took it out of the box. Not to mention those gorgeous meters!!!

Now the only concern I have (same as you do) is what do I do if it breaks down? My audio buddies told me not to worry about that & just enjoy the amp.

I also don't think technology has changed that much as far as class A/AB amps are concerned. Class D & H are showing great strides in technology though. Good luck on your decision.

 

[Swerd]

Would you rather have old Hafler XL-600, (300 watts) or a new emotiva (250 watts) for about the same price. Both are two channel. I have rather fond memories of the old haflers from college. But don't know if the technology has changed for the better to be better served with a new amp. I know the old ones can be a little more troublesome, but hey so can the new ones sometimes!

Those old Hafler amps were great. That there are so many around now in the used market is a testament to their original design and build quality. Depending on the price you can get a great deal. I'm not sure if roughly $700 would be a good price for an XL-600. Check around on fleabay, craiglist, or audiogon to see prices.

As someone else said above, there has not been anything new in class A/B amp design in some time. The only thing new is cheaper ways to build them in China.

For repairs of old Haflers, there are several companies that offer mods or rebuilds on old Haflers - just search on "Hafler rebuild". One very good one that I know of is this one by AVA, where they gut the original electronics while keeping the chassis, transformer and heat sinks. Its not cheap, but it would give you essentially a brand new amp of the very highest performance.

 

[TLS Guy]

Would you rather have old Hafler XL-600, (300 watts) or a new emotiva (250 watts) for about the same price. Both are two channel. I have rather fond memories of the old haflers from college. But don't know if the technology has changed for the better to be better served with a new amp. I know the old ones can be a little more troublesome, but hey so can the new ones sometimes!
Thanks for your opinion

Use the Haffler. Whenever possible my rule is to use good vintage equipment over new, especially if it does not originate from the Far East, which brought a huge blight to the audio art.

 

[dbpolk]

Yea

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of vintage if the sound quality is really there. What I remember it was tremendously powerful but the setup we had with the old hafler was not like my current. The one we had and used for the parties in college I know it had enough power to melt the solder off the input board on a pair of peavy's. Found memories for sure!