I'll second that on the 40 pin connector. I am going to have to source another one of those or sub in a flex cable as mine is pretty beat up just getting it together. .Almost done on TU8200R except PCB Unit 8 which I do not have one yet.
(Hello, @sharpi31 , if you no longer have one to offer, could you please at least let me know so I start looking for an alternative option?)
It took me about 12 hours for a novice like me. TU-8500 took me about 9 hours for comparison.
This is the second DIY Kit build (the first one was TU-8500). Here is the shot (I wish I took some more photos before putting them all together).
What I personally found is that it is at least one level harder than TU-8500 because there are 40 pin connectors (CN3 and CN4) that require fine soldering and careful of solders stuck together between pins. There were a couple of pins that solders stuck together so I had to remove excess solder using solder wick and re-do them.
Other than that, it was not too difficult and huge fun doing that. I now see why people praise Elekit Kit. The Kit is very well put together and made accessible to novice people like me.
And, love the compact size of the amp which only takes half-width of rack shelf so I can put another component on the same shelf. Shelf space is getting scarce so any space saving is greatly appreciated.
Hi All, FYI the kit supports 110V. There is no copyright issue. I am a legitimate owner of an 8200R kit new from Elekit, I just needed a translation and its quite frustrating that you can find many other Elekit english manuals online, but I could get no response from Elekit or the distributor in months. Luckily I got the help I needed from a kind soul. Now I just need to find replacement 40 pin connectors as that failed after my first reopening to look at jumper settings. I was 100% on all the assembly and rework of the 8200 assembly to 8200R, but in the end a couple of loose bent pins are my midnight nemesis....
There is a copy right. for the English Manual. The English manual is only for owner to acquire TU-8200R from authorised delaers out of Japan. If you buy your TU-8200R from Japan. You only have the Japanese manual. My questrion is where you bought your TU-8200R? If you have an export version, eventhough you are not bought from me I will support you. free of charge. I support a lot of TU-8200R owners out of North America. It is our passion. for DIY community.
If you bought from Japan, Amazon, Ebay, noone will support you. The tanslated manual is not a free goods. It costs a lot to make it for the customers out of Japan. This is why the export version is a little bit more expensive than Japanses version. This is why when you bought TU-8200R from Japan you do not have the 115/230V PCB Board and English Manual. If you buy from any authorised dealers, we will take care all of your issue eg. the 40 pin until your amp is working...
MarQzen said: Sorry ... I will not support customer to buy from gray market....
If you bought from Japan, Amazon, Ebay, noone will support you. The tanslated manual is not a free goods. It costs a lot to make it for the customers out of Japan. This is why the export version is a little bit more expensive than Japanses version. This is why when you bought TU-8200R from Japan you do not have the 115/230V PCB Board and English Manual. If you buy from any authorised dealers, we will take care all of your issue eg. the 40 pin until your amp is working...
MarQzen said: Sorry ... I will not support customer to buy from gray market....
Any chance the furtherest equipment (in my case my Pro-Ject vinyl player) can be grounded off the 8200R's ground?
I'm aware the 8200 does not have a common ground, yet wonder if the above can be accomplished with a small modification to the 8200R.
Asking as my current amp has a common ground (e.g. to ground my vinyl player) to solve my previous ground loop issue between both.
vkung this kit was purchased as a legitimate new item sale from a popular vendor. It came in original sealed Elekit box. It is not an illegal purchase in any way. If there is a problem it’s Elekit’s distribution management not a paying customer’s. Even if it was, I think you / Elekit are making a mistake by not providing sufficient information and support about your product. Even if it is ‘grey market’ (you should check what that term actually means) it is not the customers fault. The customer bought a new Elekit product and did not do anything illegal in any way. Refusing support because you want to recoup a manual translation charge on customers that are not responsible for your distribution problems only leaves a bad feeling with customers. This will spread as poor reviews and bad feelings among legitimate customers of. Elekit and ultimately hurt your additional sales.
Sorry, grey market purchases are the customer's fault. Really easy to figure out where/how to purchase basically anything from an authorized vendor these days.
Anything.
Watching this thread as I intend to pick up some Elekit products this year.
I really appreciate seeing all the support here on DIYA. Looking forward to building one.
Anything.
Watching this thread as I intend to pick up some Elekit products this year.
I really appreciate seeing all the support here on DIYA. Looking forward to building one.
Agreed, Victor is the authorized distributor in the US and Canada. He goes out of his way to make sure people have the materials and support they need to fully enjoy the experience of building and listening to Elekit products when they are purchased through him or one of his downstream vendors (diyaudiostore, for example). If you instead decide to buy it from another distributor or vendor outside the US, the onus is on you to translate the manual (if needed), source any additional parts, etc., and to seek support from them (if they offer it). This situation is literally the definition of grey market goods, in that the kit you bought does not sound like it was intended for sale in the US/Canada.
If you want the English manual that Victor provides with his kits, you could at least inquire about purchasing one from him, since it is indeed his property (and distribution-limited through his agreement with Elekit, I would imagine). I know for a fact that Victor goes through a lot of time, effort, and expense to make these kits available and accessible to us.
The kits from Victor are fantastic to build. I've built there so far - the 8800, 8600, and 8500 - and just bought an 8900 directly from Victor to put together in the fall/winter. I bought and built the first one because it seemed more economical than buying a comparable commercial tube amp, but I had so much fun doing it, I decided to build a few more kits. Other than an issue with the power supply soldering (my fault) on the first one, every kit has powered up on the first try, and they sound great!
If you want the English manual that Victor provides with his kits, you could at least inquire about purchasing one from him, since it is indeed his property (and distribution-limited through his agreement with Elekit, I would imagine). I know for a fact that Victor goes through a lot of time, effort, and expense to make these kits available and accessible to us.
The kits from Victor are fantastic to build. I've built there so far - the 8800, 8600, and 8500 - and just bought an 8900 directly from Victor to put together in the fall/winter. I bought and built the first one because it seemed more economical than buying a comparable commercial tube amp, but I had so much fun doing it, I decided to build a few more kits. Other than an issue with the power supply soldering (my fault) on the first one, every kit has powered up on the first try, and they sound great!
I too bought a “grey market” unit off ebay before realizing that there was a North American distributor.
I reached out to Viktor, explained my situation, and he didn’t leave me high and dry - he gave me the option to purchase the English manual along with the power board for a fair price.
My situation was special since I ended up building the amp anyways before I got a response. Not that he’s slow to respond, but I’m just impatient lol. That being said, I purchased the Lundahl upgrade for the 8200 from him.
IE. if you make a mistake - own it, throw enough money at it, and it will be corrected
I reached out to Viktor, explained my situation, and he didn’t leave me high and dry - he gave me the option to purchase the English manual along with the power board for a fair price.
My situation was special since I ended up building the amp anyways before I got a response. Not that he’s slow to respond, but I’m just impatient lol. That being said, I purchased the Lundahl upgrade for the 8200 from him.
IE. if you make a mistake - own it, throw enough money at it, and it will be corrected
My Pro-Ject TT is connected and grounded to the TU-8500 phono pre-amp and further to TU-8200R. No issues, no hum.
Do I understand well you want to connect your turntable directly to the TU-8200 ?
I would like to take this moment to THANK Victor for his unconditional support with my first DYI AmP 8200-R project. I got it from Tube depot and after building to the specs as per the instructions with upgraded OPT and Caps, it failed first time and all I could hear was hum.
Victor jumped in and help to troubleshoot the issue and now what I got is pure music coming out. Thanks Vic.
Thanks to Elekit for doing a fab job with the illustrations and details they put out taking care of every small and minute details. Hats off.
Victor jumped in and help to troubleshoot the issue and now what I got is pure music coming out. Thanks Vic.
Thanks to Elekit for doing a fab job with the illustrations and details they put out taking care of every small and minute details. Hats off.
No, grey market purchases are not a customers fault. It would be Elekit's fault who is selling them to an intermediary. If Viktor or anyone else is an 'authorized distributor' and there are not authorized distributors it would be helpful if Elekit made any note of that on their website or even provided information as to how you might purchase one. Note that I could find no list or a mention of vkung or anyone else. Nor did they respond to my we enquiry through the form. I have no evidence that a vkung is or isn't any more authorized than anyone else.
Furthermore, it is disingenuous and legally false to claim that I could not share, give or sell a manual in any language from a kit I bought to someone else - just like you can sell, gift or lend the whole amp and any part of it to someone else as a used items. There is no 'non disclosure agreeement' for the purchase of an amp..
Buying a Japanese Elekit from a vendor in Japan is not 'suspicious' particularly as compared to Tube Depot which sells Japanese kits (no English instructions) in addition to putting some English assembly instructions online and not others. It would be far from clear to determine if Tube Depot is or isn't a vendor. For these reasons I bought directly from Japan and received a sealed, new Elekit item. At the end of the day, Elekit never responded to my request as to 'how to buy one' or my request for a manual...
What is clear is that a small number of people offered help which was very... helpful. Vkung provided no information but editorial about grey market items (which its not clear how we or he would know whether this is true for vkung or anyone else). Elekit never responded one way or the other.
In any case, I found the following things useful during the successful assembly of my 8200R:
1. Claims that a Japanese kit won't support US line voltages/frequencies are false. There is zero difference between the transformer in the 'japanese' and US kit transformer that has the same vendor, voltages and impedances. If vkung would like you to believe this and you choose to believe it, so be it.
2. I had trouble getting the 40 pin connector positioned correctly during the assembly of the sub boards at the end of the process. Having bent up pins beyond repair, I did the following: (1) Found 40 pin male connectors online, (2) desoldered wrecked 40 pin male connector, (3) I assembled the boards on the benchtop (without the other boards on top blocking access) inserting the connectors (female soldered in no problem) with the male connector with just a small piece of tape to hold the male connector in its solder hole array. I then soldered the male 40 pin into its board 'soft assembled'. And, bob was my uncle* so they say.
and... Amp sounds great with the JJ 6lCs and even better with some MESA 6L6s I had available from a guitar amp. Not sure if I will upgrade caps or transformers.
One improvement I thought of was putting somedummy load protection that would prevent one from running the amp without speakers attached. I use the amp on the same speakers (ELACs) that I use for the front of my AV receiver switched via an A/B source box. Its safe in my hands but someone else could realistically switch on the amp and/or pull out the headphones without an actually load attached. I suppose I could put that sort of protection into the AB box, but a dummy load and switch on the amp itself seems a more universal option.
Hi Victor, Is TubeDepot and hificollective(in the UK) authorized to sell Elekit?