• 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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scott17

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Joined 2009
skippyboy said:
Sign me up for a basic kit, before the Aussie dollar takes a nose dive, i have the timber and the chassis lined up and am ready to go. Do you have an estimate for the postage for Australia?
Rob
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The parts included in the basic kit are shown in the sample manual at post #150 so you understand that the chassis, tubes, power transformer, output transformers, and power choke are not included. The manual will be complete this weekend and I will have 10 basic kits ready to ship by the middle of next week. The kit price is $299.00 USD. Shipping to Australia via USPS Priority Mail® International Medium Flat Rate Box, 6 - 10 days, is $45.50 USD.

Please send a PM to me with your PayPal email address and shipping address and I will send you a PayPal invoice.

Thanks,

Scott
 
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scott17

Member
Joined 2009
Completed KT88 SE Amplifier

I received the power transformer for evaluation and installed it. Perfect. The amp sounds excellent as expected. The AC hum/noise level, with no input signal, at the speaker terminals measures 1.3mV. I am using 98dB speakers with this amp and it is dead silent with no input signal. The power supply B+ voltage measures 420VDC. I'll be doing frequency response measurements this weekend. The attached photos show what the amplifier looks like with the custom transformers. I know that the power chokes have shipped and I should have those next week. It looks like within 2 -3 weeks I will have the output transformers, power transformers, and chassis. We're almost there folks.

Scott
 

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Tubelab_com

Tubelab_com

Member
Joined 2005
tubelab.com
What are you talking about? My Tubelab SSE only cost me $35!....
I think my Tubelab SSE ended up costing me about $35 x 20
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Yeah, I built Pete's red board for $50 too, $50 for the board and all junk box parts. I documented the build cost of the Industrial Strength Simple SE at $281, but that was 5 years ago and I did get a few deals on parts. Inflation and currency devaluation would make a similar amp over $500 today. I have talked to a lot of SSE builders. Some builders with well stocked junk boxes creative chassis builds, and a quick hand on Ebay have indeed made SSE's for well under these numbers. The average costs today does seem to run about $700 and I have seen a few extreme builds that went way over $1500.

I have been asked several times why I don't do a complets kit. Read through this thread and you will see that everyone seems to want something different. Stocking and shipping transformers means that there are two sets of shipping charges. I have to pay to have the transformers shipped to me, and then again to ship them to the end user. Living at the far corner of the USA doesn't help either.

Yes, you can buy a Chinese amp for cheap. Then you can buy another one a year later when it blows up. 15 years ago a Japanese Panasonic VCR cost $200. It lasted me 12 years. Last year a Chinese VCR cost me $35 at Walmart. It lasted 6 months. Which is cheaper in the long run.

I wish Scott luck, but this economy sucks! Tubelab sales have never been this bad. In 2008 I sold about 10 boards a week. Now I sell 1.
 
S

scott17

Member
Joined 2009
tubelab.com said:
Yeah, I built Pete's red board for $50 too, $50 for the board and all junk box parts. I documented the build cost of the Industrial Strength Simple SE at $281, but that was 5 years ago and I did get a few deals on parts. Inflation and currency devaluation would make a similar amp over $500 today. I have talked to a lot of SSE builders. Some builders with well stocked junk boxes creative chassis builds, and a quick hand on Ebay have indeed made SSE's for well under these numbers. The average costs today does seem to run about $700 and I have seen a few extreme builds that went way over $1500.

I have been asked several times why I don't do a complets kit. Read through this thread and you will see that everyone seems to want something different. Stocking and shipping transformers means that there are two sets of shipping charges. I have to pay to have the transformers shipped to me, and then again to ship them to the end user. Living at the far corner of the USA doesn't help either.

Yes, you can buy a Chinese amp for cheap. Then you can buy another one a year later when it blows up. 15 years ago a Japanese Panasonic VCR cost $200. It lasted me 12 years. Last year a Chinese VCR cost me $35 at Walmart. It lasted 6 months. Which is cheaper in the long run.

I wish Scott luck, but this economy sucks! Tubelab sales have never been this bad. In 2008 I sold about 10 boards a week. Now I sell 1.
Click to expand...

Hi George what's up!

In case these don't sell, you don't happen to have a basement apartment I can hide out in do you? But your in Florida so I'm sure the answer is no! Ha!
You gotta admit though this baby does look good doesn't it? One good thing though, this baby WILL NOT blow up in a year or 10 for that matter. Concerning the cost of this kit I am at rock bottom considering the time I have spent researching the proper parts, the manual, the pre-cut chassis, etc.
 
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S

scott17

Member
Joined 2009
pred said:
Is this posible to be used on 230V? How much is the shipping to Switzerland, Are the tubes included?

Regards,
Pred
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The master kit @ $849.00 USD includes chassis, transformers, tubes, assembly manual and all parts. The power transformer can be wired for 120V or 240V at 50/60Hz. At 120V the B+ is 420VDC. Running at 230V instead of 240V would yield about 402V according to calculations which is just fine. The kit is shipped in 3 boxes with insurance. To Switzerland the cost, per box, via USPS, 3 - 5 days is $83.30 + 63.00 + 63.00 = $209.30 USD. Seems kind of high, but that's the best I can do.
 
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pred

Member
Joined 2004
scitizen17 said:
The master kit @ $849.00 USD includes chassis, transformers, tubes, assembly manual and all parts. The power transformer can be wired for 120V or 240V at 50/60Hz. At 120V the B+ is 420VDC. Running at 230V instead of 240V would yield about 402V according to calculations which is just fine. The kit is shipped in 3 boxes with insurance. To Switzerland the cost, per box, via USPS, 3 - 5 days is $83.30 + 63.00 + 63.00 = $209.30 USD. Seems kind of high, but that's the best I can do.
Click to expand...

Hello,

thank you for the answer, but this is steep for me...
 
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