I bought a Sanei SA560 2A3 SE amp from Ken/Otomon. Won it at an EBAY auction for $1250. This included shipping from Japan. No output tubes! Had to provide my own - Electro Harmonix Gold's. I still consider the $1250 a fair and reasonable price! The Sanei uses all Tango transformers and is excellent build quality!
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Until now, Ken has been the best kept secret in audio. When I say audio, I mean vintage and bespoke Japanese audio MANIA. The man is a master of this mysterious art, a mad genius confined to his dark, smoke-filled workshop. Take a look at the selection of items he lists on his website. Some seem like junk, but are in fact carefully selected, exquisite national treasure goods. He can make a fully bespoke amplifier using any of the legendary parts to your exact specification and budget. I personally have experience with two type 71A amplifiers, the latter of which was custom designed. I asked for a somewhat dark sounding piece with lots of drama and emotion, which was delivered in spades. I asked for a specific design using natural wood and raised copper plates, and he allowed me to participate in the design process on the level of layout. You can see the finished piece in a recent post to the website. Finally, it was surprisingly affordable. I was so happy with the result that I ordered a matching phono preamp, which is currently in the works. Overall, an extremely unique and satisfying experience, a throwback to the golden age of mania. |
Hello sir, how are you? Please, can you tell me more about the Otomon from Japan? I’m not finding too much info, just found your experience and another user that described a disaster situation.. Do you know more people that purchased amps from Otomon? Any additional info is very much appreciated! I do not received his e-mail back yet... by the way, I think I not fully undertstood about the amplfiiers, appears to be only vintage pieces, including lots of vintage components inside that shows a lot signs of use... He build also new ampliifiers, with new components? Honestly, I do not found the build quality impressive, I’m missing something? Please, let me know, many thanks! best regards! |
Let me be more specific: When I look his various amplifiers design, I think they are interesting, uniques, but sometimes very intriguing, strange.. For example, I noticed that in some amps, he uses vintage parts, vintage capacitors!?!?!? how such old capacitors can delivery nice performance? vintage transformers, some very old. from the 50's 60's 70's I think... he also sells this components... What I found most intriguing is that in some amps he uses vintage western electric wires! wha's about that? I mean, very old wires, you can see clearly the signs of age deterioration.. Someone can explain about this design approach? This is totally new for me... In general, the amps appears always to have some vintage components, some more than others... The work appears to be unique, interesting, but also intriguing, strange... |
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I ordered from Ken-san 2 amps, 717A drive 45 tube amp and 2A3 Para SE tube amp, both of them are perfect and better than any amp that I had before. His work on wiring is awesome. Here is my ordered amp -->> http://soundgate.net/product/NDkx.highend and http://soundgate.net/product/Njc5.highend I dont know why you had problem with Ken-san but he is really kind and professional. All my emails was responsed within 3 hours. I ordered and got the amp 3 months before but any when I send mail to him, he response immediately same the first day I contacted to him. |
most of the recent issues seem to be related to the 1940’s Western wiring, which is very difficult to solder. but one can always opt for regular wiring. allow me to add that the sound that KEN achieves is incredible. we recently did an A/B of this custom 71A amp... http://soundgate.net/product/NTYx.highend ...against an American custom amp twice its price, and KEN’s was drastically better in every way. it was also equal on low levels to a TAKATSUKI based 300b with all-TANGO iron, which is a prototype that will cost 7-8K when complete. |
I just bought a 45/2A3 amp from Otomon Lab. This is the best amp I ever have. I don’t think I need another amp for my Lowther based horns. Ken Uesugi is a master builder of tube amps. This amp he built for me sounds much better than my previous Yamamoto A-08S (a 45 amp). It’s about the truth and spirit of music. This is the amp I bought: http://soundgate.net/product/NzI1.highend |
Ken is very cool. He just made a 45/2A3 convertible amp for me. i have at least 50 years of experience with Hi-Fi and this is the sound I’ve been searching for. Only caveat: you must have speakers that are 96 to 97 dB efficiency. Otherwise, the amp just can’t give it’s all (and that can get plenty loud with lots of body). I will never part with this amp. |
I just received Ken's 45/2a3 amp. I am using it for my compression driver horns from 800Hz up. I was using a 'quite famous' UK brand 300b amp. On replacing the 300b with the 45 Otomon amp, the improvements were immediate (after 30 mins warm up) and evident. Voices and instruments took on a clearer outline and there was more separation. Not only that, the rhythm and timing improved and instruments stopped on a dime (if they were meant to); bongos had more of a tone (havent tried other instrumentals) and also backgrounds seem darker. I am enjoying the music so much. Overall its a great amp for the money - - and all this including using very affordable tubes (used) that I purchased from ebay - Ken, thank you ! |
His work is very beautiful and the amps look very cool. I am interested in trying one, a SE with maybe an 808, 2A3 or 211 but just about everything I see is 100V. I won't use a transformer because they all sound so bad to defeats the purpose of the simple clean amp circuit. Are there 120V SE amps I'm missing? I think he has one for sale now but it's PP. Thanks much.Ian |
I ordered this amp to Otomon Lab and really happy with its sound.You can see the perfect wiring inside the amp. Output is about 15W but it is dead quite from my 100db speaker. Killer sound, much better than my Yamamoto 300B tube amp. I dont know because of 300B tube is not as good as 808 or Ken-san 's technical. Ken-san is very nice, he explain and give suggestion to any thing related to technical. Here is my amplifier > http://soundgate.net/products/detail.php?product_id=ODY5 |
I just received a custom built 300B amp from Ken. Ken is very responsive and answer all my question within a day. His amp looks as beautiful as it sound. The wiring is super clean. I think it needs more time to be broken-in, but it sounds good right out of the box. My only challenge in the process is to choose what amp to be order. On his web site, there is a huge variety of previous built amps, and price range from $1000 to $8000. Now, I am tempted to try another amp from him, that is the problem! |
BTW, this is the 300B amp I ordered. http://soundgate.net/product/ODg2.highend My other two amps are Triode Lab 2A3 integrated and Almarro 318B. Both of them are very good amps and won the awards by 6moons. I don’t want to draw conclusions too early, but right out of the box, this 300B compares very favourably with them. |
Ken is highly recommended easy to get contact He build fantastic amps, more importantly, he has excellent work ethics I recently bought a PP 71a amp from him, could not be happier! I could not believe that he used Fedex express freight to ship his amp half way around the world. Took 2 days to get here in Ohio!!!! Highly recommended, Will buy again from him |
I also am a VERY satisfied customer of Ken Uesugi. I have purchased a fully custom pair of 300B monoblocks (C3g -> 71A -> 300B driven, interstage transformer) that are 101% stunning in every sonic regard, and visually off of the charts. I requested certain topology and spec, paid the down payment and didn't bother him after he commenced work. He quoted 90 days, designed, built and completed them in almost exactly that time and shipped them UPS Air in which they arrived at my door OVERNIGHT! While waiting for the amplifiers I modified my rack and cables to suit them when they arrived and also bought a stock of a few main and backup tubes (fingers-crossed - only one 71A failure so far!).
Truly amplifiers that I will never part with. These may or may not be better or worse than anything else out there, but let me put it this way: I have zero want or desire to ever replace these as my main piece in any system I will ever have. These will go to my daughter as heirloom pieces after I pass and are absolute treasures.
Please see this link: http://soundgate.net/product/MTI3Mw...highend |
Very very high recommend tube amplifier maker. Recently, I ordered VT-62 tube amp, this one > http://soundgate.net/product/MTQ2NQ...highend Ken 's service is very very good, he is very kind, response my mail very fast. But the most impressive is quality of product. This is one of the best amp that I have heard, sound is really incredible. It impress me much from the first time as hearing the fist note of music from the amp, and it is getting better and better every day. Im very satisfy about this amp. |
I have been keeping my eye on the thread as I had ordered a 2A3 amp and asked for some customization. Excited to report back. Communication was great and easy. No issues. I frequently visit Japan and was able to arrange for a free local delivery about six weeks after I placed the order. I picked up the necessary tubes while in Japan so I would be able to listen to it when I immediately got home. Amp was packaged quite well and there were no issues checking it in with my luggage. Unpacked it all and plugged it in last week. WOAH! Legit blown away by it. Really really really happy with my purchase. I had a friend come over this past weekend to do some A/B with his custom 2A3 that he had purchased from EIFL a few years ago. Ken's outperformed! My friend is now looking into purchasing his next amp via Sound Gate. |