2. amps-preamps
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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 2 responses by lafish3

lafish3's avatar
lafish3
12 posts
 

The company that currently supplies Dynaco kits is often out of stock, but you could buy one of these: https://www.analogethos.com/pacific-63

A couple of modest but meaningful improvements to the original--a better bias circuit and less feedback--and they are handmade in the USA. I haven't heard one, but the original sounded great, as did Shannon Parks' diytube clone, one of which I used happily for 20 years,  so I suspect these will too.

There will also be kits available soon if you want to go that route. And the wonderful EL84 tube is readily available in both new production and NOS from multiple sources. 

lafish3's avatar
lafish3
12 posts
 

Just my two cents, but having owned multiple ST70s and ST35s, I like the ST35 much better. OTOH, ST70 is much easier to find, and you can get a somewhat updated version from tubes4audio.com. Assembled or kit. They have a EL84 amp do, but it’s more closed related to the Audio Note than to the Dynamic.

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