Canadian company has acquired the "Dynaco" trade name ?

Nothing to stop the current holder from selling the name I suppose, assUming they do own it free and clear. I looked up ESS Labs, and they're a speaker & headphone company over in LaLa Land that may have been planning on branching out at one time?

They also hold a license to produce Heil air transformers, but that's just a rental ... the actual patent still belongs to the inventor.

Looks like they also planned to get into mobile video, but apparently on hold as well ...

I wouldn't worry about any of the tech ... I'd think that would all be public domain by now.

Perhaps we could start a Kickstarter campaign and crowd-own the brand name

The same Canadian  company has acquired the "Hafler" name. You can find out more at the following website:

hafler.com

Nothing, however, about how it has acquired the "Dynaco" name.

Radial Eng. was a Hafler distributor in Canada. The new Hafler products it offers have nothing to do with the Hafler Co., except the name.

Page 44 in the May/June issue of TAS has an advertisement for a Hafler headphone amp. They have gotten audio engineer Al Schmitt to endorse their products. We will need to take a wait and see attitude.  Looks kind of suspicious!

As regards for domain names dynaco.com is held by squatter domaincontrol.com.
dynaco.net and dynaco.org is hald by squatter cscdns.net.
cscdns.net. also holds dynaco.be as hostage

dynaco.co.uk is used by http://www.hartdoors.com/ and i think the reason is that a doormaker sells doors ( or locks ) under the name dynaco.

Happily enought dynaco.se is free. Should i register it for you Bob ?

sKiZo.com's available ...

... just sayin' ... ;-}

Of course, that's also held by an url squatter. Almost as many of those as there are spammers. I was surprised a plum like Brainfartz was available when I was shopping for a site name.

Big difference between a brand name and a site name though.

Once upon a time ESS was home to a young speaker designer named Nelson Pass. I don't think he ever made it out of the Sacramento Valley.

As someone who lives north of the 49, I kind of took offense at that comment.
An American company tried and failed to bring the name back to the audio landscape. A valiant effort,
not fulfilling just the same.
Now we have an upstart who happens to be based up here. Is it their wish to honour the Dynaco/Hafler tradition or just cashing in on
the famous names?
I hope its the former as it would great for our favorite equipment to get a new lease on life and
hopefully flourish.
Just a thought IMHO.

Eskimo

In October of 2014, I sold my ST-70 amp to a guy who was associated with Radial Engineering. He showed me several of his Web sites on which they sold mainly musical instrument and sound reinforcement gear. He claimed they were going to study the amp and design an updated version. I guess they weren't kidding around!

His name was Peter Janis and he said he was based in Vancouver, BC. I was having some credibility issues and told him it was a cash - local sale only, and he arranged for me to take it to his local distributor, who handed me my asking price in cash.

That suit would stop them from branding it Dynaco, but I'm betting no one owns Hafler as a trade name. And Series III is probably generic enough that Panor would not be able to stop them from using it.

Captain, Van Alstine's amp is branded as the AVA U-70, so he never infringed. As for the intellectual property, he designed his own driver circuit, and the rest of it was generic enough that he was safe. Oddly, my amp was his mod, and I was never very happy with it. I listened to it for 8 years, wondering why it didn't sound as good as my solid state rig. When I rebuilt an ST-35, I couldn't wait to get rid of it. If only I had known about VTA before I paid Cranky Franky big bucks for it!

Okay enough said ... What's the bottom line as it relates to tubes4hifi, Bob Latino and Roy?
How might things change?

Expensive and slick. They're not going after the DIY market. Doesn't look like it will be an easy design to modify.

The dynaco-to-be was had extremly ugly looking covers. I also noted that they wind
mains transformer for 120 and 220V . 120 is ok for the US masket, but in europe we have 230V :-)

Also noted that input impedance of the so called st-70 was 2k !! What are they thinking of ??

peterh wrote:The dynaco-to-be was had extremly ugly looking covers. I also noted that they wind
mains transformer for 120 and 220V .  120 is ok for the US masket, but in europe we have 230V :-)

Also noted that input impedance of the so called st-70 was 2k !! What are they thinking of ??

Thise covers are probably the entire marketing identity for this small "family" of costly home audio products.

I'm thinking the "2k" input impedance is a product of the inept technical mind of the article's author. Most of the writers of glossy audiophile websites don't have a sound basis for their technical "evaluations."

I like the new cover.

corndog71 wrote:I like the new cover.

If all legal attempts to retain trademarks fail, they could call it the Haflaco Quonset Series.

One cannot neglect the possibility that it might be a well-sounding amp that may give competitors a fight. We must not blind ourselfs with an ever lasting demand for "the cheapest" , in the hifi arena
price is not the no1 criteria it's as always sound quality.

Same goes for the preamp, it just might be a nice combination of properties soundwise although
i personally find the "design" questionable. I would never buy one as i have my vta-70 that is
"end-of-search" for me in my current living.

Let us wait and see. It's never wrong with competition.

Kinda related, but not...was getting tires at Sam's last week, walking around...came upon an "Altec" powered speaker for PA and home karaoke I guess...an Altec....rated at probably a million watts, but the best part was the flashing, dancing, syncopated light show illuminating and eminating from the 15" woofer. All for $199. Wow. I recall the Altec 601, the 604 and the A7 Voice of the Theatre...when Altec meant something. Now a cheap disco POS at Sam's. People buy the venerable old brand names or just steal them and put out their own weird products. So many of the great old hi fi and music instrument names have been trashed recently.

1) VTA ST70 $1235 + shipping WIRED with ALL tubes & EL34 output tubes.

2) VTA ST-120 WIRED and TESTED amp with a complete tube set with Sovtek 6550 output tubes > $1600 + shipping.

3) WIRED PAIR OF M-125 amps with ALL TUBES $2895 + shipping

The proverbial no-brainer!