JH,
I built this P.P. amp from a schematic by Eli D. - search the Decware forums, under the 'tube audio' threads for a topic named 'bargain basement'. If you're willing to build an enclosure yourself, it might be perfect for you. There's a kit of smaller parts available, with you buying / scrounging the iron yourself. I upgraded the output transformers to use the Dynaclones seen in the picture. I have been more than happy with this amplifier and it was a straightforward build.
Good luck,
Scott.
Scott, that sounds great.
The reason I was looking for a “kit” is because I was trying to avoid searching for individual components. The fact is that even if I was to have a kit with a printed board I would likely P2P most of the wiring and only use the kit for the parts and schematic.
Basically, I am too lazy to want to search for the stuff but obsessive about the build and quality and don’t mind spending hours on something tedious.
BTW, I see you are from Portland……
That already makes smarter than the average person!
LOL
As far as the suggestions that I find out what I want….
That is great advice….but I have never owned, built, seen or heard a tube amp other than my guitar head. I don’t have the ability to listen to any amps to judge the SQ or do a comparison so in a nutshell… what I want is basically what the people here say I should want, the individual opinions are my sole guidance in regards to a better amp.
The complexity of the build is not an issue (in some respects I would prefer something more complicated); metal and wood are no problem. I just want a big box of parts and a map.
-JH
The reason I was looking for a “kit” is because I was trying to avoid searching for individual components. The fact is that even if I was to have a kit with a printed board I would likely P2P most of the wiring and only use the kit for the parts and schematic.
Basically, I am too lazy to want to search for the stuff but obsessive about the build and quality and don’t mind spending hours on something tedious.
BTW, I see you are from Portland……
That already makes smarter than the average person!
LOL
As far as the suggestions that I find out what I want….
That is great advice….but I have never owned, built, seen or heard a tube amp other than my guitar head. I don’t have the ability to listen to any amps to judge the SQ or do a comparison so in a nutshell… what I want is basically what the people here say I should want, the individual opinions are my sole guidance in regards to a better amp.
The complexity of the build is not an issue (in some respects I would prefer something more complicated); metal and wood are no problem. I just want a big box of parts and a map.
-JH
JH,
I'm actually considerably less bright than you Portland residents - because I moved FROM Portland to Central Point, OR. Though my wife and I make it up to Portland about four times a year. We love it there.
You should make plans to attend the VSAC 2008 conference in Vancouver, WA. You can listen to a lot of cool tube gear. I wanted to bring my 'el cheapo' build up, just in case anyone wanted to hear what some solid engineering and design sounded like (when built by a hack such as myself) - however, my wife is expecting our first child that weekend so...well, hopefully I wont have to wait for more years for the next VSAC.
Scott.
I'm actually considerably less bright than you Portland residents - because I moved FROM Portland to Central Point, OR. Though my wife and I make it up to Portland about four times a year. We love it there.
You should make plans to attend the VSAC 2008 conference in Vancouver, WA. You can listen to a lot of cool tube gear. I wanted to bring my 'el cheapo' build up, just in case anyone wanted to hear what some solid engineering and design sounded like (when built by a hack such as myself) - however, my wife is expecting our first child that weekend so...well, hopefully I wont have to wait for more years for the next VSAC.
Scott.
Jonny Hotnuts said:
I've been following this thread and suggest you build the el cheapo amp. You can get most of the kit from Jim McShane (http://pages.prodigy.net/jimmcshane/elcheapo.htm). You will need to get iron from a couple of places but this isn't too bad. I've purchased tubes from Jim and he runs a top notch business.
I haven't seen your answers to some questions regarding power requirements, speakers, room size so I'm guessing this amp will work.
I've followed the thousand page thread on Decware and it seems like a pretty good kit. The amp designer is very helpful on a couple of audio forums and knows his stuff. And since Scott offered some help, you *will* be able to get the amp working.
rick
w5jag said:
They advertised in the January issue of AX -- here's a link
http://www.dynakitparts.com/store/
You can find the Dynaco ST-35 kit fully assembled on ebay sometimes. I've also seen the ST-35 board stuffed on ebay and a vendor's website (can't recall where). I've got the board myself and it's a nice piece, although I have not had time to stuff it yet.
My vote is on tubelab.com's SimpleSE if you're willing to stuff it. There is a BOM parts list that makes getting parts easy. The hardest part is drilling the chassis. Well worth the effort. The amp sounds wonderful.
These options are both very affordable, but can get pricey depending on the parts used. Handmade Electronics has amps that are sub $1k if you want DIY without the DIY. http://www.hndme.com/atg2a3.html
My vote is on tubelab.com's SimpleSE if you're willing to stuff it. There is a BOM parts list that makes getting parts easy. The hardest part is drilling the chassis. Well worth the effort. The amp sounds wonderful.
These options are both very affordable, but can get pricey depending on the parts used. Handmade Electronics has amps that are sub $1k if you want DIY without the DIY. http://www.hndme.com/atg2a3.html
Hi Jonny,
Here is a suggestion for you. Don't use a kit, build the ST70 from scratch. This is what I did for my first project (which you can find in previous posts - search for my posts). I had never built anything substantial before in electronics, let alone a valve amp. I initially looked at the kits but they were not really what I was was looking for. Overall, the scratch build was a great challenge for me and great fun as well. This forum will give you all the help that you need (if any) to get it up and running.
Personally, I couldn't be happier with the look or the sound of my ST70. Furthermore, it will drive even low sensitivity speakers and does not need a preamp to drive a CD player through it if you just put a duel gang 100K potentiometer in the input.
As an aside, I see that you are in the automotive business. The metal working side of things was the most troublesome and expensive part of the whole project for me and it looks as if you have this side of it nailed.
Good luck, will look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Rob
Here is a suggestion for you. Don't use a kit, build the ST70 from scratch. This is what I did for my first project (which you can find in previous posts - search for my posts). I had never built anything substantial before in electronics, let alone a valve amp. I initially looked at the kits but they were not really what I was was looking for. Overall, the scratch build was a great challenge for me and great fun as well. This forum will give you all the help that you need (if any) to get it up and running.
Personally, I couldn't be happier with the look or the sound of my ST70. Furthermore, it will drive even low sensitivity speakers and does not need a preamp to drive a CD player through it if you just put a duel gang 100K potentiometer in the input.
As an aside, I see that you are in the automotive business. The metal working side of things was the most troublesome and expensive part of the whole project for me and it looks as if you have this side of it nailed.
Good luck, will look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Rob
I agree. find a good schematic and build from scratch. You can build an $800 amp for about $300 plus your time, and building it is half the fun.
Here you go Jonny,
ST70 -
Schematic (attached)
Metal Work - Your own design and construction, minimal Cost
Metal finishing - I am sure that you have idaes and contacts.
Transformers - 1 power, 2 output and 1 choke, triodeelectronics (check the website), set you back a couple of hundred. Matt at triode is a good bloke and the transformers have the original wiring colour, so it's easy!
Caps - you cold use the triode power caps board for about $70 and they can supply the rest of the caps or you could hunt out your own power caps or can.
Resistors, valve sockets, wire (cloth covered 600v) and all the rest including tubes, Radiodaze, they are great guys.
Now all you need (if you don't have them already) is a decent soldering station (maybe $150) and a half decent multimeter (should pick one up for about $100 on ebay.
Overall will cost more than $400 but should cost less than $1000 and you will get a great amp out of it at the end. I have described in my earlier posts how I started from scratch and where I got all my components.
Cheers again,
Rob
ST70 -
Schematic (attached)
Metal Work - Your own design and construction, minimal Cost
Metal finishing - I am sure that you have idaes and contacts.
Transformers - 1 power, 2 output and 1 choke, triodeelectronics (check the website), set you back a couple of hundred. Matt at triode is a good bloke and the transformers have the original wiring colour, so it's easy!
Caps - you cold use the triode power caps board for about $70 and they can supply the rest of the caps or you could hunt out your own power caps or can.
Resistors, valve sockets, wire (cloth covered 600v) and all the rest including tubes, Radiodaze, they are great guys.
Now all you need (if you don't have them already) is a decent soldering station (maybe $150) and a half decent multimeter (should pick one up for about $100 on ebay.
Overall will cost more than $400 but should cost less than $1000 and you will get a great amp out of it at the end. I have described in my earlier posts how I started from scratch and where I got all my components.
Cheers again,
Rob
Attachments
A few months ago I built a stereo single ended 300b powered amp the CGV-300b by Gabevee who's a member here on this site. It was fun and easy to build and not expensive and it sounds very good. I put together a quick web page showing some of the buildup, how the kit comes etc. It uses all generic components, nothing exotic or expensive but the design is good.
What I've been doing is experimenting with the amp some now. For instance I've changed the power supply around a bit going to chassis mounted caps, 100uF before the choke, 200uF after using JJ clamp mount caps. The amp is very quiet when idling. I also changed out the coupling caps from the orange drops to some copper foil types from Angela. Since there are only 4 I thought it was worth the cost to experiment. It's been a lot of fun and it really sound excellent through my old Altec Valencia speakers.
I also added a standby switch so that the tubes can warm up before I hit the B+.
Here's a link to my page. I need to update it with some pictures of the amp now that I've done a few mods.
http://misn.com/~frd460/CVG300bampkit
Keep in mind that the amp doesn't look fancy in any way with it's bare transformers and Hammond chassis but you could do whatever you want with the cosmetics, I happen like the "crafted" look but that's up to you.
What I've been doing is experimenting with the amp some now. For instance I've changed the power supply around a bit going to chassis mounted caps, 100uF before the choke, 200uF after using JJ clamp mount caps. The amp is very quiet when idling. I also changed out the coupling caps from the orange drops to some copper foil types from Angela. Since there are only 4 I thought it was worth the cost to experiment. It's been a lot of fun and it really sound excellent through my old Altec Valencia speakers.
I also added a standby switch so that the tubes can warm up before I hit the B+.
Here's a link to my page. I need to update it with some pictures of the amp now that I've done a few mods.
http://misn.com/~frd460/CVG300bampkit
Keep in mind that the amp doesn't look fancy in any way with it's bare transformers and Hammond chassis but you could do whatever you want with the cosmetics, I happen like the "crafted" look but that's up to you.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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