VINTAGE HAFLER DH-101 PREAMP TESTED

Description

I am the second owner of this preamp and can attest that it functions flawlessly and sounds superb. There are no notable physical defects. Even the mechanical buttons, which have a tendency to break on these units, work perfectly, turning white when pressed. Electrically, the only possible flaw (or advantage) is that the tone controls (bass and treble) do not seem to have any audible effect when adjusted, at least as far as I can hear. I have not opened up the preamp to check but I suspect they may have been bypassed at original assembly. Although the original owner told me he bought it in a hi-fi shop, which would suggest that it was put together in the factory, many of these amps were also sold as kits, and of course it is easy to imagine an audiophile assembling the unit at home electing to bypass the tone controls. I might have done the same myself, actually.
In any case, the sound of this preamp is quite impressive. I was comparing it to another of my solid-state preamps the other day (Musical Fidelity A3CR) and found that it had a purer, more direct sound, especially noticeable on isolated vocals. I also found its phono section to be superior. As is well known, this preamp is pretty difficult to beat for the price. You will not be disappointed.
On Jul-07-21 at 15:17:07 PDT, seller added the following information:
ADDENDUM:
I thought initially that the tone controls might have been bypassed in a home assembly, since I could not detect any difference in the sound when adjusting the knobs. I was mistaken. The tone controls work fine. I had failed to press the "tone" button before adjusting the bass and treble, a foolish mistake indicative of the fact that I almost never meddle with these functions at all. I thank ebay user rickcl for pointing out my mistake. I would also now emphasize that ALL functions on the preamp work unambiguously as designed.