Hi everyone,
I've been a lurker of this forum for years, and now I've decided to be more actively participating.
As a bit of background, with the help of a friend I've built my own Kondo Ongaku homage amplifier (not really a clone).
I did all the 3d design myself and built the chassis out of 3mm copper plates using my CNC, I'm attaching a few 3D renders and the finalized project 🙂
I've been a lurker of this forum for years, and now I've decided to be more actively participating.
As a bit of background, with the help of a friend I've built my own Kondo Ongaku homage amplifier (not really a clone).
I did all the 3d design myself and built the chassis out of 3mm copper plates using my CNC, I'm attaching a few 3D renders and the finalized project 🙂
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Probably a little overkill for Avantgarde Duos midhorn and tweeter drive and it's likely making vocals sound larger than life but what's not to like?
I know people using 845 Nagra PP monoblocks on their Duo's and they are ecstatic. I guess powerful amp with big potent OPT plays a role in that design.
How significant was IV trans upgrade in AN Kit DAC? ANK supply their better models with bigger IV trans supposedly comparable to ANUK production trans but I have no personal experience with them. Nice CD transport as well, what is it? I have to admit having a soft spot for golden accents and black acrylic 🙂
I know people using 845 Nagra PP monoblocks on their Duo's and they are ecstatic. I guess powerful amp with big potent OPT plays a role in that design.
How significant was IV trans upgrade in AN Kit DAC? ANK supply their better models with bigger IV trans supposedly comparable to ANUK production trans but I have no personal experience with them. Nice CD transport as well, what is it? I have to admit having a soft spot for golden accents and black acrylic 🙂
I’ve wrote this on another group regarding my upgrades to the Ank dac:
“
ANK a dac 5.1 signature with a few upgrades:
-charcroft silver mica caps at dac output
The sowters brought the most dramatic of changes, I’ve wired them with both primary and secondary windings in parallel for maximum bandwidth (and more detail retrieval, since the signal has to travel less wound copper I’d imagine), resulting in a 1:5 gain ratio…immediately after installing them I noticed a dramatic tightening across all the frequency range, drier, more defined bass notes, more top end extension and overall transparency…also the dac became much more detailed…and was when it revealed the slight harsh nature of the vcaps that came with the dac…the dac started sounding a bit too over sharpened, with vocals and anything metallic sounding a bit over textured and the illusion was gone…after replacing the vcaps with the duelunds everything snapped back in…the result is a much more detailed, extended dac, which still sounds natural (maybe even more so than stock).
Duelunds are still breaking in, should be mostly done
As for tube rolling, I’ve settled with a Tesla ecc802s, a JJ ECC99 and a golden dragon 274b (tried Psvane we274b and Sophia electric 274b with mesh plates and didn’t really like them)”
“
ANK a dac 5.1 signature with a few upgrades:
-charcroft silver mica caps at dac output
- sowter 1465 iv transformers
- duelund silver/Cu hybrid coupling caps
The sowters brought the most dramatic of changes, I’ve wired them with both primary and secondary windings in parallel for maximum bandwidth (and more detail retrieval, since the signal has to travel less wound copper I’d imagine), resulting in a 1:5 gain ratio…immediately after installing them I noticed a dramatic tightening across all the frequency range, drier, more defined bass notes, more top end extension and overall transparency…also the dac became much more detailed…and was when it revealed the slight harsh nature of the vcaps that came with the dac…the dac started sounding a bit too over sharpened, with vocals and anything metallic sounding a bit over textured and the illusion was gone…after replacing the vcaps with the duelunds everything snapped back in…the result is a much more detailed, extended dac, which still sounds natural (maybe even more so than stock).
Duelunds are still breaking in, should be mostly done
As for tube rolling, I’ve settled with a Tesla ecc802s, a JJ ECC99 and a golden dragon 274b (tried Psvane we274b and Sophia electric 274b with mesh plates and didn’t really like them)”
The transport is a thorens tcd 2000, it’s a nice transport built around a Phillips cd pro module
I’ve noted quite the improvement when upgrading to the sowters, it seems the original ones were a bit of a bottleneck, the dac became much nicer after the sowters and the duelunds
The ongaku is definitely overkill in terms of sheer power output, I’m using the 16ohm OPT taps on the iso fc-40-10s and I can’t go past 9-10 o’clock on the volume pot without shattering windows 🙂 but I haven’t heard anything better with the AvantGardes to my ears, others agree. Might not be the pinnacle of uncoloured sound but I’m really happy with how it all ties together
Welcome to the forum😁. Great Job on your 3ding. Am looking into that my self as a fellow diyer I met not long ago. Keep us posted. Have fun and be safe. Jeff
They look dramatically bold. Lovely. How do they sound playing reggae/soul/funk/acid jazz ect?
