• 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.

KT88 SE Complete Kit

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antiquekid3

antiquekid3

Member
Joined 2010
scitizen17 said:
Kyle, I applaud you for your resourcefulness. You are a true DIY'er. Hopefully some of your apparent knowledge will find it's way to others of your generation. Great job sir!
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Thank you! I have a few friends at college who appreciate guitar tube amps, but I haven't met anyone else who thinks tube hi-fi is worth it. I'm sure a few people my age are out there, just maybe not around here.

Kyle
 
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jrn77478

Member
Joined 2008
Rockmore said:
Whoa... Nine hundred bucks........ think I'll go Chinese assembled (like Yaqin) and mod. or go with one of their kits, and save $300-400....
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You will get, pretty much, exactly what you paid for, a cheap piece of electronic gear, made from parts of dubious quality by hands of wildly varying skills. Sure, you might get lucky and feel like your gamble paid off, because your amplifier actually works, for more than 3 weeks, and especially if you can convince yourself that what you're hearing is as good as what the kit offers. But unless you can do that, you aren't really comparing apples to apples, so your suggestion that the kit price is out of line is suspect, at best.
 
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scott17

Member
Joined 2009
c2cthomas said:
Hi Scott - a great project and wonderful job by you for putting this all together. Too few people have jumped through the hoops necssary to put together a group buy, and to do that as well as design your version of the amp and put together a "how-to" CD is simply HUGE. You have my congratulations and a heat felt "well done"!!! :worship:

Short OT question about your avitar - is that the AN/FPS-35 over at Montauk Point State Park? I'm just an old radar tech that worked onna bunch of that stuff back in the day. The rumors about Montauk are interesting - but that's all I'm gonna say about it. ;)
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Thanks very much for the comment Thomas. It means a lot to me that I have support from you and all the other diyAudio folks out there. Yes, I took a trip out to Camp Hero over the summer and snapped that photo of the AN/FPS-35. Of course I colorized and textured it a bit to make it look more "omninous".

Happy Holidays,

Scott
 
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scott17

Member
Joined 2009
Extreme_Boky said:
I think there is potential for this complete kit at $850. That is, if it is going to look like one in post #82 (blue coloured transformer are not really required – just high quality transformers / choke will do nicely here….). Hopefully, the price for full kit includes better transformers (not Edcors)… If the answer to the above 2 questions is YES, then I wouldn’t mind to get the full kit and see what it can deliver in its original configuration / with original parts’ quality… The cost with shipping ($100?... or more?) and assembly ($100-$300... or more, depending on how much you value your skill-set AND your time) could probably reach levels where some will start comparing the total cost to those Chinese class A valve AND solid state amplifiers that can be obtained directly from Chinese manufecturer (I know what most of you guys think about products from China…., but some are quite good, well engineered, same parts quality like the kit we are taking about in this thread, and they sound AND look (!) pretty good indeed in their original form…) I suppose I wouldn’t go above $850 for the full kit…. At least until it proves to be good sounding and good looking kit that sells well.

Apart from all I mentioned above, kudos to Scott for putting the whole kit together! This is entirely different subject from my marketing reasoning… so congratulations for dedication and attention to detail.

Boky
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Thanks Boky! I have installed the custom output transformers and power choke on the amp. There was a "slight issue" with the first version of the power transformer I received but that has since been rectified. When I receive the final version of the power transformer, hopefully next week, I'll scope the frequency response of the amp and post the results. I can tell you though that it will meet the 20-20,000Hz flat response characteristic. I just need to see how far beyond that it will be, not that it matters that much.

Scott
 
Extreme_Boky

Extreme_Boky

Member
Joined 2003
scitizen17 said:
Thanks Boky! I have installed the custom output transformers and power choke on the amp. There was a "slight issue" with the first version of the power transformer I received but that has since been rectified. When I receive the final version of the power transformer, hopefully next week, I'll scope the frequency response of the amp and post the results. I can tell you though that it will meet the 20-20,000Hz flat response characteristic. I just need to see how far beyond that it will be, not that it matters that much.

Scott
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No problem,

I think my comparison with ready-made products is somewhat not applicable really... this kit should bring pleasure and joy to DIY-ers and for this simple reason I think it's a good kit realistically priced…. I suppose I forgot what DIY was all about.

Boky
 
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bigjppop

Member
Joined 2009
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scott17

Member
Joined 2009
Hi,

I'm here at work at JFK, blizzard today, probably stuck here till tomorrow afternoon. I thought I would share a bit more of the SE manual with you all so you can see the direction I am taking in writing.

I had to greatly reduce the resolution of the photos to be able to attach it. The photos in the printed manual will be clear.

I will have 10 Basic parts kits available for sale as soon as I finish this manual, about a week or so. After that I'm just waiting to receive the chassis and transformers, 3 - 4 weeks, maybe sooner. When I receive those I will have 25 complete Master kits available for sale.

Thanks,

Scott
 

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scott17

Member
Joined 2009
REDHORSEMAN said:
can I preorder a complete kit?
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You can, but it's going to be a few weeks before I receive the transformers and chassis. At that time I'll have 25 kits available. I'll make sure one of them is yours if you like. There is no reason to pay until I have them ready to ship. I will need your email associated with your PayPal account, and your shipping address so I can calculate the correct shipping charges and send you a PayPal invoice. Send me a PM with the information.

Thanks,

Scott
 
M Gregg

M Gregg

Disabled Account
Joined 2010
adammar said:
internal components, looks like most "wise guys" claim that type of wires (as long as the gauge is right) make no difference in sound, but i am curious what you will say...
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Well er, get ready for the :hot:.

Audio talk: Silver can make music sound "thin", silver coated copper adds weight ! Stranded "flex" of either seems to add more detail. Single core Silver is excellent the softer the better (size matters), I used silver wire from the jewlery suppliers.Why spend if you want to try it!

After all that is said: the more esoteric (silver, caps, wire, solder) you go the more faults in music or equipment will show!

:yawn: No comment. LOL

Regards
M. Gregg.
 
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M Gregg

M Gregg

Disabled Account
Joined 2010
adammar said:
Would you, guys, reccomend wiring them with silver wire (like: Muchmore Racing MRWS18 18 AWG Silver Wire Set Red Black 180#) ?
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Just for information,:flame:

The dielectric "insulation" is very important. I tried some "expensive" silver cable with polyester insulation it sounded awful. Worse than standard silver plated copper PTFE. So silver cable is not "good" because its silver. If the insulation is not PTFE or teflon then my thoughts are give it miss unless you have used it before.
My comments above still stand! < Only from my experience:)

:yawn: no futher comments.

Regards
M. Gregg
 
E

eleftherios

Member
Joined 2010
scitizen17 said:
You can, but it's going to be a few weeks before I receive the transformers and chassis. At that time I'll have 25 kits available. I'll make sure one of them is yours if you like. There is no reason to pay until I have them ready to ship. I will need your email associated with your PayPal account, and your shipping address so I can calculate the correct shipping charges and send you a PayPal invoice. Send me a PM with the information.

Thanks,

Scott
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