Your journey with lower-watt tube amps -- Can a kit be good enough?


Looking for stories about your low-watt amp journeys.

Here's the situation: I have new speakers, 97 db. Trying them with lower watt tube amps (45/211, 300b, etc) seems generally wise. I am attempting to borrow some from audiophiles in the area. 

The horizon beyond trying these things involves actually buying some. I'm looking at a budget limit of about $5k.

Curious as to folks' experience with lower-watt amp kits vs. those of good makers (e.g. Dennis Had, etc.).

If you have any thoughts about the following, I'd be interested:

Did you start out with a kit and then get dissatisfied? Why?

Did you compare kits vs. pre-made and find big differences?

Did you find you could get the equivalent level of quality in a kit for much less than the same pre-made version? How about kit vs. used?

Also: did you find there was a difference between "point to point wiring" vs. "PCB" in these various permutations?

I realize that there are good kits and bad ones, good pre-made amps and bad ones. I'm hoping you'll be comparing units which seem at comparable levels of quality and price-points.

Thanks.

hilde45

Showing 1 response by armstrod

I’ve built both PCB and all point to point kits. For me, the decision is not about sonics but about ease of construction and upgradability. PCBs are much harder to solder and much easier to screw up than the lugs of a point to point build. If you want to upgrade down the line, any parts on the PCB are also going to be way harder to unsolder and replace.

Like Ralph, I prefer more power even with my very efficient Zu Druids, but lots of people love the SET sound regardless of speaker choice. You would do well to try to borrow one or more to see how you like it before investing in a kit. If you buy a kit before listening and end up not liking it, the resale value of kits is pretty dismal, not to mention all the time it took to build it.

As far as value vs. pre-made, these days I prefer to listen to music rather than build kits. It’s all I can do to drag out the tube tester to make sure everything is operating at spec.