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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 corelli

corelli
1,035 posts
 

Many different points of view. I will add a few of my own for the OP.

--a kit would not typically be a big factor in my decision making. Why? Simple. The markup of amps from Elekit, Analogue Ethos, AK kits from kit to pre-built is actually small and insignificant (a few hundred dollars) and if you factor in your time I do not think you are saving much. Now, if you are into many upgrades/mods, if you love the satisfaction/nostalgia of kit building--go for it!

--one poster states that low powered SET amps, even with efficient speakers, are a no go. He knows more about tube amps than I ever will. But I trust my ears. In my secondary system, I have a 4wpc SET driving Omega speakers. Especially since I added a small pair of REL subs, I am shocked at how much of my music collection sounds great on this system. Also note, I run the Omegas full range with no crossover and these are in a fairly large room. Does it do everything my high powered primary system does? Of course not. But 90% of my music sounds so good on this system I could be happy with this for the rest of my life. In fact, some of my CD’s sound better on this system than my main system.

--speaker/amp matching is critical with SET amps.  In this setting, full range drivers are a natural choice IMO.

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