OK guys...be gentle

[jdsackett]

Well, here's my first attempt at diy audio. A preamp made from the Electra-print ultrapath schematic. As fate would have it, Jack, the guy who makes the transformers only lives a few miles from me. I used his transformers, a homemade chassis out of aluminum flat stock and some 1/8" aluminum perf board. I have never wired anything like this before and Jack was kind enough to let me wire it up at his place and check my progress as i did it. Very cool guy. After i was done he hooked it up to his test equipment to make sure i didn;t mess anything up. Tested xlnt!!! Beginners luck i guess. Anyway, it sounds very good. I think it sounds better in the path than out of it. My amp has gain controls on it, so i can feed sources directly into it. With the pre in the path it seems to open up the music some and gives better detail. But that's me, could be full of crap cuz i made it, lol. Anyway, my first, but not last, diy build. Thanks to all for the inspiration. Regards, J.D.

[evette]

Keep up your great work.

[firechief]

OK I'll be gentle. The proof is in the result, and that looks good to me. The only thing that I would say is check around for some PCB style perf board for your next build, Or your could do something like this with terminal strips and point to point wiring. Just a suggestion. I like to sling terminal strips into holes in a chassis and hold them in with rivits. Its real fast.

[lduarte1973]

i would replace those ugly yellow knobs

the rest for a first try , not bad !

[M Gregg]

Good first build,

Tag strip would make life a lot easier..

Did you put a discharge resistor across your power supply capacitor to make sure it discharges after power off ? (so you don't touch it tomorrow and get a shock!) Test before you touch anything!

Best of luck with future projects..

Regards
M. Gregg

[SY]

Indeed, well done for your maiden voyage. Perf metal is an excellent choice, keeps everything cool and reliable. My main suggestion would be to twist the heater wires more tightly and keep them dressed to the chassis (tie wraps or twist ties can work nicely).

[tinitus]

nice

I hope the electrolytes are NOT touching the chassis ?
well, I guess only a possible issue with 'reversed' polarity

btw, where are the tubes
tube amps look a lot better WITH tubes

[jdsackett]

[QUOTE=lduarte1973;2767812]i would replace those ugly yellow knobs

Excuse me????? Those are hand made and polished solid brass knobs!! lol, guess opinions vary.

Yes, there is a resistor to bleed the caps. Caps are close to touching but not quite.

I thought of using pref board for wiring but Jack had a bunch of terminal strips so i used those.

Yeah, noticed i didn't have a tube in it when i took the pics...OOPS. i attached a couple , not very good.

Thanks guys, appreciate the encouragement. Think an SET will be next. Jack has a couple that i listened to and they are very nice sounding amps. Thanks again fellas, best regards, J.D.

[bear]

Only one problem I see... ain't no parts in dere! Ya left out all the parts!


_-_-bear

[Starre]

Nice work! You get a taste for this, building yourself.