Dennis Had Inspire Fire bottle 45

Goosepond · « **on:** 22 Sep 2018, 06:32 pm »

Hi,

I'm not much of a tube guy but I'm trying.

I've read thru the KT88 thread so it's obvious that Dennis makes good stuff.

Any thoughts on his 45 amp. I've looking at buying one.

Thanks,

Gene

Tyson · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Sep 2018, 06:37 pm »

Quote from: Goosepond on 22 Sep 2018, 06:32 pm

Hi,

I'm not much of a tube guy but I'm trying.

I've read thru the KT88 thread so it's obvious that Dennis makes good stuff.

Any thoughts on his 45 amp. I've looking at buying one.

Thanks,

Gene

I have a 45 amp but not by Dennis. 1.5 watts is very low. Do you have efficient speakers? With a 45 amp, speakers close to 100db efficient are what you really need to work with that amp.

If you DO have appropriate speakers, then a well done 45 amp sounds amazing. The clearest, most "see through", and most "you are there" presentation of any amp I've heard.

Goosepond · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Sep 2018, 06:52 pm »

Hi Tyson,

Thanks for the reply. The amp is advertised as 2W but who knows. And yes I do have a pair of Omega OUTLAW SUPER 3U 1.5 in EKO Zebrawood 3D Laminate. Do you think something like an Abacus Music LDR passive preamp based on the Tortuga board would be appropriate?

Gene

Tyson · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Sep 2018, 07:06 pm »

Quote from: Goosepond on 22 Sep 2018, 06:52 pm

Hi Tyson,

Thanks for the reply. The amp is advertised as 2W but who knows. And yes I do have a pair of Omega OUTLAW SUPER 3U 1.5 in EKO Zebrawood 3D Laminate. Do you think something like an Abacus Music LDR passive preamp based on the Tortuga board would be appropriate?

Gene

Oh, that's a GREAT speaker for a low watt amp. Your preamp should be fine, as Dennis' gear tends to sound good with anything, even straight off a DAC sans preamp. Yeah, you should definitely give the 45 a try, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised by how big and gorgeous a good 45 amp is.

Yomaha · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 02:12 am »

Does Dennis do/offer any type of upgrades to his Inspire amps?

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 02:15 am »

Quote from: Yomaha on 16 Oct 2018, 02:12 am

Does Dennis do/offer any type of upgrades to his Inspire amps?

If you mean say trade in I already see he selling on Ebay used trade in equips. For upgrade equips he will do anything you want mainly on Inspire equips.

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 02:22 am »

On the 45 amp its limited to 45/2A3, his other amp KT88 FireBottle tube rolling a dozen of tubes and delivery around 7/12W, much more useful.

45 amps with small OPTs need a flat easy to drive 8 ohms impadance.

roscoe65 · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 11:32 am »

I've owned a 45 amp and currently own two of Dennis' SEP amps.

1. A 45 tube amp will only get you 1.5 watts no matter how you slice it. If your speakers are not very high efficiency and/or you listen near field and/or you relive them of low bass duties (my choice) you will have a bad time. That being said, 1.5 watts is more than you think.

2. Dennis 45 amp is a two-stage amp with a 6SL7 to 45 tube. While the 6SL7 is a higher gain driver, you will still need a preamp or very high output DAC. All of Dennis' amps benefit from active gain.

3. At $1,695, this amp is a bargain. It is hand-built using top-quality components and custom iron including an oversized PT.

4. The Omega SAHO Monitor is great on paper, but my experience with Omega's (I own 4 pair) has been that the additional driver on the bottom end does add fullness, IMO it doesn't truly take a lot of lot from the amp, but rather allows it to accept more power. In side by side listening, I prefer a single driver model. If I owned a SAHM, I might be looking at an Inspire PSE amp.

5. If you are using active bass support (I am - twin Rythmik F8's) then you can cut the low frequencies to the main driver. You don't need to actively cross them over. I am running the bass modules up to 200hz or so. The preferred arrangement is to allow the mains to run full-range. But with such a high crossover on the bass modules, I can cut the bass to the main amp at 50 or even 100hz using a passive filter on the amp's input. This can have the effect of doubling or tripling the power to the main speaker.

RoadTripper · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 12:17 pm »

Is this amp widely available? If so, where? Thanks.

Yomaha · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 03:24 pm »

I have the KT150 Inspire. I love rolling tubes thru there. My current favorite rectifier is a grey plate WE 422A. Seems to do everything really good.

I'd like to keep the amp, but curious about any upgrades like caps..?

Hear Clifford Brown · « **Reply #10 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 04:26 pm »

Good information above from roscoe65.

Back when I had some speakers from Coincident Speaker Technology, the Super Eclipse III (92 dB, 14 ohms), one amp I tried was a TAL Korneff 45 clone. The speakers were not quite efficient enough but the sound was magic somehow. Hard to describe.

Whenever I read discussions about 45 amps I want to have a second system with some high efficiency speakers. Lately after reading some positive RMAF comments about Klipsch, (Tyson's for instance since I trust his opinion) I've been thinking those with a good 45 amp might be just the ticket.

Goosepond · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 05:25 pm »

Well, I started this thread so here's an update, sorta. Dennis and I exchanged a couple of eBay msgs. Turns out we were born the same year (1945). So he's really old!

I never did buy his amp. I was mostly interested in it because of his reputation and it's looks. Crazy, huh?

But I've found another owner who might be interested in selling one (

). So for you experts out there, how do you think those robust little 1.5 watts would mate with my huge Spatial M3 Turbo's? Even crazier, huh?

Gene

Hear Clifford Brown · « **Reply #12 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 05:33 pm »

I don't think it would be the best combination. I had Spatial M3 Triode Masters and used a HO version of the Inspire Fire Bottle amp. It had bigger output transformers and supposedly did 17 watts with KT88s. It sounded very good, but then I bought a SS amp and the speakers really came alive. I sold the Inspire amp but loved it and would like another for a second system.

Goosepond · « **Reply #13 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 05:39 pm »

Yeah, that's about what I expected to hear. I don't ever try to blow out the windows and in fact recently I bought this amp:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=159503.msg1703301#msg1703301

It's supposed to be 2.5 watts and I hooked it up to my Spatial's. Surprisingly I didn't have to use all of my vol. control.

Gene

roscoe65 · « **Reply #14 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 06:49 pm »

Quote from: Goosepond on 16 Oct 2018, 05:25 pm

Well, I started this thread so here's an update, sorta. Dennis and I exchanged a couple of eBay msgs. Turns out we were born the same year (1945). So he's really old!

I never did buy his amp. I was mostly interested in it because of his reputation and it's looks. Crazy, huh?

But I've found another owner who might be interested in selling one ( ). So for you experts out there, how do you think those robust little 1.5 watts would mate with my huge Spatial M3 Turbo's? Even crazier, huh?

Gene

Short answer: no. The Spatial Audio speakers really need some power to move.

Goosepond · « **Reply #15 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 07:14 pm »

I'm sure you're right. My present system is a Tortuga based passive pre hooked to a pair of EVS M100 Monos Class D.

Gene

Tyson · « **Reply #16 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 07:57 pm »

If you really want to go the low-power route you could get one of these, hehe (once they are available):

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=159096.0

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #17 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 10:05 pm »

Quote from: RoadTripper on 16 Oct 2018, 12:17 pm

Is this amp widely available? If so, where? Thanks.

How widely available? Dennis made them one by one:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/radioman731/m.html?item=153129151586&hash=item23a7356c62%3Ag%3AlXsAAOSwcOJbaIwG&_sacat=0&_nkw=radioman731&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #18 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 10:22 pm »

Quote from: roscoe65 on 16 Oct 2018, 11:32 am

1. A 45 tube amp will only get you 1.5 watts no matter how you slice it.

In 4 ohms it will delivery only 1W or less.

Quote from: roscoe65 on 16 Oct 2018, 11:32 am

3. At $1,695, this amp is a bargain. It is hand-built using top-quality components and custom iron including an oversized PT.

Not exctly a bargain as a Sino amp and it need a preamp to drive it.
Photos show some caps are 10% precision.

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #19 on:** 16 Oct 2018, 11:21 pm »

Quote from: Goosepond on 16 Oct 2018, 05:25 pm

Well, I started this thread so here's an update, sorta. Dennis and I exchanged a couple of eBay msgs. Turns out we were born the same year (1945). So he's really old!

I never did buy his amp. I was mostly interested in it because of his reputation and it's looks. Crazy, huh?

But I've found another owner who might be interested in selling one ( ). So for you experts out there, how do you think those robust little 1.5 watts would mate with my huge Spatial M3 Turbo's? Even crazier, huh?

Gene

How much dB/SPL it have?