Dennis got his first well known YouTuber review—and that too on his 300b SET amp:

https://youtu.be/l-lRvZVyZ0o

Yea, the way it works it that you buy it and that begins the development process (it takes about 2 weeks) with pictures galore and he listens/burns it in for about 48 hours in his rig before shipping.  Once he’s done with the build/shipping, he will throw another listing on (but not necessarily the same amp type). He cycles between the 300b, the Firebottle KT-88 SEP (the one I have), and others.

Kahuna Jack

Sigh…it’s going to painful, but no.  I intend to sell it either to cover (partially) the cost of the Sarah or the acquisition of WE 300b tubes.  I rather it be someone’s main amp and get the love and attention it deserves.

I'm not a video guy. I found this, mentions Decware.

https://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2022/10/22/a-lifetime-amp-the-inspire-300b-v-by-d...

You’re welcome Brad. It’s hard to predict with Dennis, considering the one off (and one man) nature of Dennis’ work but I will try and contact him tomorrow to gauge whether he would be amenable to selling it without the tubes. I will also message one of his par-time techs who helps him occasionally to see what the deal is.

inexpensive yes, especially in light of Steve's projected price of $5K for Sarah. No idea which tubes he intends to be stock.

I got the Aric 300b last April along with the WE tubes. I am very pleased with the sound. It's all I hoped it would be plus some.
I still have a se84ufo2 in a smaller room. Love em both.

My buddy is going for Sarah and he has an MK3. So, between those 2, my incoming Aric 300b and an order slated for next fall, I will have been able to listen to a few nice systems. Can’t wait to compare the 2 300’s. Fun times ahead!😀

that Aric Kimmel amp.... a quad of 300b's + separate power supply ?? hard to imagine that NOT being a "game over" amp for even the pickiest listener.

just a few dreams away  8-)

I've had trouble watching Steve Huff's audiophile channel ever since finding out about his main channel https://www.youtube.com/c/huffparanormal. Ouch, 1.7M subscribers ... funds his non-ethereal hobbies.

I had no idea about his paranormal youtube channel, and it's large following. Wow. That's a lot to take in.

ill stick with watching Ghost Whisperer reruns : )  seen every episode at least 7 + times ; )

Wow, had no idea he was running a parallel paranormal YT channel.  You’d think it would pop up in my YT feed considering how regularly I watch his audio reviews.

In the meantime, I’ve also reached out to one of Dennis’ techs to find out about whether he would sell the amp without the WE tubes.

Mr. Kamran, let me know when you get your Sarah & want to move on from the Firebottle KT-88. I’m sure a lot of people would like to give it a safe forever home.

Peace out, Ralph

Hot on the heels of a favorable YT review, Dennis is experimenting with a 300b Parallel Single Ended amp with two WE 300b tubes per channel!  No pricing yet, but just the cost of tubes (without taking in to consideration the rectifier and driver tubes) is going to be $3K.

I think in this hobby a form of mental conditioning is always active. In past I would never even consider spending $1500 for a duet of power tubes but giving it some thought.... if its the last pair of tubes I will ever need or want in my amp? It almost turns into a "bargain" and a miracle that the WE300b is even in current production at all.

If for some reason current WE300b production would cease ? can you imagine how crazy the secondary market price on them would get??

There are trade offs to all the options.

No tubes included. Some people will be upset that they need to buy tubes separately. For Dennis, If someone buys some junk tubes that are noisy or bad then they are contacting him to get it fixed and going online to say how Dennis sold a faulty amp.

Sell with cheap tubes. Some people will complain that they are not going to use the supplied tubes because they want top of the line.

Sell with top of the line tubes. Some people will complain that they don't want to spend the money on the top of the line.

I would personally want option 1 with no tubes.

I don't fault Mr. Had for how he operates, If I was in his position I most likely would go the same route.

I have no skin in this game as with or without tubes, this amp and the Sarah are above my budget. Having said that, I agree that $4k with WE tubes sounds like a deal to me. In comparison, the Sarah with the same tubes would cost more than 1.5x as much. I am assuming there will be sonic and build differences between the two, but both will be hand built, point by point, etc….

I can certainly understand wanting to save the money on the tubes as a consumer, but I also understand DH’s priority of making sure customers are satisfied with the final product. His complete price seems in line with other manufacturers that include lesser tubes, which benefits the customer. If I were in the market for a 300b amp, this would almost certainly be the one.

Quote:


Yes it looks like that’s his portal for new sales.

I would keep an eye on the used market, HiFishark.com is a good tool for that purpose.

Brad

I haven’t used HiFiShark before but I’ll keep my eyes on it. Thanks.

In an ideal world, there is an option to purchase that amp with or without tubes.  However, it doesn’t always work that way in reality.  Dennis, unlike Decware, is the show of a one man army, retired, and does this on his terms.  With over three decades of experience building amps (estimating here), he has his preferences and given his lack of resources, his limitations.  Bundling the amp with tubes that he loves, is his business decision.  Some people will find that compelling and their dollars will validate his call.  In case his decision is met with subdued interest, I reckon he will just decide to stick with amps that have good market acceptance and price to performance ratio.  My 2 cents.

There was a question about his listing regimen.  Yes, he only sells through eBay since he doesn’t have the time or resources to manage a website. He was trying to do something on AudioAficianado, but note sure how well that was received.  His call sign on eBay is radioman731.  You can either setup an alert on eBay or use a third party site such as www.automatedsearches.com to setup an alert (the latter I hear is more useful, though I haven’t used it personally).  

Hope this helps.

Ok—-Dennis and his friends had an amp shootout with this new 300B PSE.  11 of Dennis’ various amps including his regular 300b. Speakers were OB, but not using Lii Audio drivers from what I can tell. The 300b PSE was the star of the show.  Another surprise was the reveal of his most inexpensive amp (that wasn’t on my radar).  According to his tech, the PSE just blew away every other amp Dennis has built to date.  Here’s a telling quote:

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Dennis says this amp is the best one ever to play in the shop, and I'd have to agree with him. It literally blew everything else away. In it's current configuration it's putting out somewhere around 12 WPC. However, that number can't convey the incredible deep bass, the rich tones, and the sweet syrupy highs. The old dogma is that triodes are great for jazz, female vocals, etc, but don't have the oomph to handle rock and roll.

WRONG....

The amount of bass coming out of this amp and the Inspire speakers is nothing short of amazing. Typically they have not been as dynamic as the big shop prototypes, but with the extras power and dynamic range of the 300B PSE, they really open up and come alive. What's really amazing is that all that bass is coming from an open baffle design. We will be continuing to make the Inspire speakers as a custom order, and we be able to ship them in the near future.

Also spotted for the first time was the Kleen Sweep amp, 6-7 WPC of inexpensive Inspire power. This is a very...ahem...clean listenable amp with a bright upper end. Dennis is going to offer this one as his affordable, entry level offering into the Inspire line.

Dennis will be asking a mere $1500 for this one

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And yes, the price of the 300b PSE was also revealed.  Wait for it…. $8500

[url] Untitled by analog addict, on Flickr[/url]

Knowing what a Dennis Had Inspire amp sounds like. And how a 300B tube amp sounds, let alone one with 4 WE300Bs. Makes me want to see if I can get one before the estimated 3 year wait on the Sarah.

Peace out, Ralph

I have been messaging Dennis the past few days & this morning he told me he put up an add for me on eBay. I did the search for the add but was too late I guess. Did someone on here jump on it before me even though Dennis gave me a heads up? Dennis replied “Heavens I think so, I’ll do another build for you, give me a half hour to post it up. Needless to say the estimated arrival date is 1-18-22. That’s a bit different than my wait for a Sarah. When my wife asks about the Decware 300B amp, I tell her “it’s an abstract concept involving uncertainty & the future.” Anyway, in a few months I’ll post my thoughts on the Inspire 300PSE.

In the meantime, give that boy a 6 string steel guitar, Ralph

+1 here with Kamran!

Really looking forward to your experiences with your new 300B  👍💥💥👍
Congratulations, Ralph!

Brad