just wanted to post a 8900 build i did recently
8900 + vcap cutf + E2a3 globes + sylvania bh7a + TKD + Lundahl nonAM
Primary intention to use for 2a3 no NFB and speakers
Noted plenty of gain and power, about 2-3 clicks on the TKD is blasting volume levels
Quite happy with the way these Sylvania BH7a drivers sound actually
Obviously shifted towards more Macro cause no AM, but i cant live without good Macro. I feel like you have to choose one extreme or get the worst of both worlds unless you can put both in one amp
need to put some hours on the vcaps before i send it out
surprisingly good slam and transient on this probably due to nicely done SS rectification and robust buffer stage
vcap, polymer caps, seem to be dry sounding so e2a3 a slightly wet compliment
8900 + vcap cutf + E2a3 globes + sylvania bh7a + TKD + Lundahl nonAM
Primary intention to use for 2a3 no NFB and speakers
Noted plenty of gain and power, about 2-3 clicks on the TKD is blasting volume levels
Quite happy with the way these Sylvania BH7a drivers sound actually
Obviously shifted towards more Macro cause no AM, but i cant live without good Macro. I feel like you have to choose one extreme or get the worst of both worlds unless you can put both in one amp
need to put some hours on the vcaps before i send it out
surprisingly good slam and transient on this probably due to nicely done SS rectification and robust buffer stage
vcap, polymer caps, seem to be dry sounding so e2a3 a slightly wet compliment
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I love the look of those 2A3 - who makes them? Double check the orientation of your caps - they look backwards. There is a debate if you can hear the difference if its reversed but manufacture suggests so. Manual also refers to installing caps in the direction of the Anode marker, If I recall correctly.
I have been debating 8600S, 8900 or SV-S1616D. At this time I am waiting until we have hours, months on (8900, SV-S1616D "when shipped") and with the community's building/listening updates ...I did purchase 2 weeks ago INSPIRE Fire Bottle KT88 by DENNIS HAD. Will see how the Pre1616D interfaces with the Fire Bottle...I also order KT-170's as this Amp uses a range of Tubes.
I am curious what is the difference in sound between the regular Lundahl upgrade to the silver one? Has anyone here written any experience of the silver upgrade?
Both 8600 and 8900 are both excellent kits in terms of support from folks here as well as Victor who most of the time has his cellphone glued to his hand
From the reviews and people I spoke to, 8600 with upgrades is still best if you invested in 300B tubes or sold on getting 300B. There are many good manufacturers of 300B and now of course with WE retooling here in Georgia, it can’t get better than that.
8900 is compatible as you know with 300B and 2A3. To my ears, 300B is best in 8600s. I have both and I can distinctly hear a difference. 8600S just envelops you in the music and rhythm is 2nd to none.
Now if you put in 2A3 into 8900……oh mamma……..to me, you are now on the same playing field as 8600S and dare I say it……perhaps even better? The downside is that there are limited 2A3 manufacturers unless you go RCA NOS.
Of course this is my opinion and taste but like I said you cannot go wrong with any of kits Victor sells. No, I don’t work for Victor
From the reviews and people I spoke to, 8600 with upgrades is still best if you invested in 300B tubes or sold on getting 300B. There are many good manufacturers of 300B and now of course with WE retooling here in Georgia, it can’t get better than that.
8900 is compatible as you know with 300B and 2A3. To my ears, 300B is best in 8600s. I have both and I can distinctly hear a difference. 8600S just envelops you in the music and rhythm is 2nd to none.
Now if you put in 2A3 into 8900……oh mamma……..to me, you are now on the same playing field as 8600S and dare I say it……perhaps even better? The downside is that there are limited 2A3 manufacturers unless you go RCA NOS.
Of course this is my opinion and taste but like I said you cannot go wrong with any of kits Victor sells. No, I don’t work for Victor
Neville thanks for the feedback I have tried my 2A3 today for the first time but only for a few hours so definitely need to get some more hours on the tubes. My Cossor WE300b are back in now and I want to get at least 100hrs on them before swapping in the 2A3 for a longer listening run. I work from home so can run the amp the amp 10 hours + a day so it won't take to long.
I'm not sure if it's the AM transformer the Cossor WE300b or Vcaps however the sound is starting to open up nicely now with 50hrs play time. Sonics are notably improved than from fresh.
The Vcaps have a notorious long burn in time I note 400hrs is mentioned by the manufacturer. Previous experiences with Teflon capacitors I've found 200hrs is normally enough to hear them come in song..
Hd800 also sounding very nice on the headphone out as well.
I'm not sure if it's the AM transformer the Cossor WE300b or Vcaps however the sound is starting to open up nicely now with 50hrs play time. Sonics are notably improved than from fresh.
The Vcaps have a notorious long burn in time I note 400hrs is mentioned by the manufacturer. Previous experiences with Teflon capacitors I've found 200hrs is normally enough to hear them come in song..
Hd800 also sounding very nice on the headphone out as well.
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I'm running stock, I have the headphone impendence setting positioned on the medium setting in the high range.
The case gets warm to the touch but I would not say it gets hot even after 15hrs. Next week when my little ones are back at school I will run without the top plates and take some infrared temperature readings. Ambient temperature in my room hovers around 20 degree Celsius at the moment. I can do some temperature reading of case temps for reference this evening after running around 14hrs.
So I stopped mid post and I just went and checked. My amp has been running for 4 hours and the maximum temp on the case work I could identify was 39 degree Centigrade and that is only the small area between the 300b and 12bh7 tubes everywhere else is a couple of degree lower. Which is somewhat interesting as there is nothing directly underneath it at that location which gets hot. I was expecting the max temp to be directly over the 5W resistor but that area was a couple of degree lower at 37 degree Centigrade. Maybe radiating heat from the tubes bases combined with a slightly reduced area of airflow in that small area due to the size of output caps in that location accounts for this at guess. Certainly there is nothing to worry about temperature wise with those reading imho,
The case gets warm to the touch but I would not say it gets hot even after 15hrs. Next week when my little ones are back at school I will run without the top plates and take some infrared temperature readings. Ambient temperature in my room hovers around 20 degree Celsius at the moment. I can do some temperature reading of case temps for reference this evening after running around 14hrs.
So I stopped mid post and I just went and checked. My amp has been running for 4 hours and the maximum temp on the case work I could identify was 39 degree Centigrade and that is only the small area between the 300b and 12bh7 tubes everywhere else is a couple of degree lower. Which is somewhat interesting as there is nothing directly underneath it at that location which gets hot. I was expecting the max temp to be directly over the 5W resistor but that area was a couple of degree lower at 37 degree Centigrade. Maybe radiating heat from the tubes bases combined with a slightly reduced area of airflow in that small area due to the size of output caps in that location accounts for this at guess. Certainly there is nothing to worry about temperature wise with those reading imho,
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There is nothing to worry about with temps. I have had tube amps that were so hot they even had fans inside chassis and that came from manufacturer. I have not tried the difference between NFB and non NFB. I could be wrong but non NFB is to be used if you have a preamp?
One thing that struck me with Elekit amps is that you don’t need to warm up the amp for 30 minutes before it sounds good. Other tube amps I had need warm up time such as Rogue Audio and PrimaLuna.
I posted this in my “Building 8900” thread:
I took temperature readings for anyone that might be concerned about heat. My room temp is 73F/23C and the top of the cover is 93F/34C. I can rest my hand on cover comfortably. My 8900 has been playing for about 13 hours.
One thing that struck me with Elekit amps is that you don’t need to warm up the amp for 30 minutes before it sounds good. Other tube amps I had need warm up time such as Rogue Audio and PrimaLuna.
I posted this in my “Building 8900” thread:
I took temperature readings for anyone that might be concerned about heat. My room temp is 73F/23C and the top of the cover is 93F/34C. I can rest my hand on cover comfortably. My 8900 has been playing for about 13 hours.
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