• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

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GlenSify

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Joined 2010
#1
Hi all,

I'm looking at building my first valve amplifier and I want to build a decent 2 channel home amplifier kit. I've done the prerequisite searches for this and noted some possibly terse responses to the "what kit should I buy" question so I hope this question is not unwelcome.

What is the minimum I need to spend on an amplifier kit in order to get an amplifier that will illustrate properly the difference in sound of valves over solid-state? I realise that you can spend as much as you want on these things but for a first go do I need to spend $100, $500 or $1000 to get something that sounds distinctly like a nice valve amplifier?
 
#2
waaaaaay too many variables Glen - at any of those price points you can be either thrilled or disappointed. Well, in Aus the $100 is out, but north of $250 and you can be in the hunt.

What is your objective? An end in itself, or the start of a process?

What are your physical, financial and capability limits?

What equipment is it to be used with?
 
#3
Mr A asks some good questions.

Full kits for tube amps are somewhat scarce. Semi kits or front end boards are a bit more common.

Something like the tubelab stuff for SE (don't know if he has simplePP out yet) or Gregg-the-Geeks DynaMutt front end board, or parts kits for El Cheapo from Tom Shane are some good examples. There is also the Decware board (but TubeLab offers up more potential & value). Scare up the right donor & you can diy a tube amp of the level you describe for <$200, but that presupposes some luck (we built from scratch really good variations on RH84 for <$150, and a killer El Cheapo variant for <$250. Somewhere between $300-600 would be my estimate. Alot depends on what iron you can score.

And then there are the cheap amps from China that i call pre-built lits -- amps just screaming to have their guts modified (the Yaqin amp Joe Rasmussen uses as a base for his budget amp is a good example).

dave
 
#4
planet10 said:
And then there are the cheap amps from China that i call pre-built lits -- amps just screaming to have their guts modified (the Yaqin amp Joe Rasmussen uses as a base for his budget amp is a good example).

dave
Click to expand...

An excellent characterization! I think the Chinese amps have A LOT of value, but you need to be willing/able to do a little work on them yourself.
 
#7
What is your ability to drill a few holes in a piece of aluminium? Any basic woodworking or metalworking skills? If you are capable of constructing a chassis, or buying one and drilling the holes, a Tubelab type project might be OK for you. They come as a printed circuit board, you solder the parts on and place in a chassis. In Australia, the problem is getting the power and output transformers for a reasonable price. Edcor USA makes some good, reasonably priced transformers. I used $20 Edcor output transformers on my Tubelab Simple SE and it sounds good. Sourcing valves/tubes can be a problem, but looking around on Ebay can still yield some reasonable finds if you stay away from the popular brands.

Good luck,

Chris
 
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#8
Tubelab's Simple SE would be a great start as an easy build at low power. If you want high volumes, you need high efficiency speakers with it.
The upcoming Simple PP can provide a step-up in power.
Russian tubes like the 6N1P etc make cheap cheerful low level stages, but may not have the ultimate audiophile sonics of some of the typical We$tern offerings. They have fairly heavy heater current requirements but they can stand quite a bit of "beginner abuse" (I can vouch for that!).
A lot of them are pin-equivalents of Western tubes as well, something to factor in when choosing a kit without tubes.
 
#9
chrish said:
Edcor USA makes some good, reasonably priced transformers. I used $20 Edcor output transformers on my Tubelab Simple SE and it sounds good.
Chris
Click to expand...

Chris, just out of interest (as I haven't tried Edcor yet), what sort of freight costs were involved. I'm in NZ but it will give me an idea.
Freight costs become a major factor in valve amp building for us down under.

Gary
 
#10
Read over the MENG 6P1 thread and you will see another "pre-built kit". Of course, you have to happy with about 6W. Every spec from anything from China seems to lie by about 50%. Knowing that, you can then evaluate the value.

The other option is a vintage amp and refurb it. I have an HK A300 Elite just waiting for me to finish my Meng. It's 12W really is 12W. Unfortunately, the better vintage amps seem to hold their value too well for what they really are. Dyna's go for far more than they should. Mac and Lux are totally out of my reach. Even old CJ. Of course, shipping is half the cost. Decent amps have lots of iron in them!
 
#13
Hi GlenSyfi,
Have to echo riverrat373 here about S-5 Electronics at least as far as their K502 is concerned (and their K12 versions). As my first valve amp build I was well pleased. There are lots of mods to be done on this amp showing a newcomer to valves how small changes in components can make big changes in sound. I got mine from Antique Electronic Supply and are still available. At nearly $200 though it's not quite the steal it used to be.

Brgds Bill

Antique Electronic Supply
 
#17
rhing said:
Why not try one of the Elekits like this one:

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/elekit/158462-elekit-tu-879s-6l6gc.html#post2044276

This particular model received an excellent review in 6 Moons and it sems to be very well designed and made. Read the 6 Moons article to get an idea of how David Kan, the reviewer, was able to build it with few issues.
Click to expand...

I have seen some of these Elekit amps in Japan and they looked pretty good. Unfortunately, the line voltage requirements for this amp is 100/120V. Australia (where the original poster is from) has 240V line voltage. Part of the difficulty will be finding a kit with a 240V power transformer. BTW, Edcor have some that will work with the Tubelab Simple SE. Not sure if it is on their website now, but there is a .pdf list available with all of their power transformers. When I get home I can chase it up if the original poster is interested in going that route.

Chris
 
#18
tvrgeek said:
Every spec from anything from China seems to lie by about 50%.
Click to expand...

Not all of them. We've had EL34 & KT88 PP that met power spec (the cheaper one was our fave sonics wise), but 2 others SE300B and highish end PP KT88 didn't, the 300B meeting your criteria. (i'm not at liberty to says who's).

Just like from anywhere you can buy from crap to very good, and they are learning fast.

If 4-5W is enuff, the new EL84 SE from MiniWatt looks to be good value -- and my 1st thot was prebuilt ready to become RH84.

dave
 
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