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

I mentioned to @hilde45 about eight members who all paralleled together on this same path about 8-10 years ago, many of us owning different generations of the same amps at the same times, all following each other around - making the next round of upgrades again to the same or next builders.

The DESIGNER and the types of circuits used with different types of tubes became the most fun for me. I eventually bowed out and went back to higher power amps, both tube monos and solid state.

The lower power amps did not like me and my speakers too much. There was this cool euphoric sound with a lack of drive and lacking dynamics in my case. Finally gave up, could never seem to get it right. Had the wrong speakers for it is my summation now.

What @atmasphere mentioned above about room "sound pressure levels" and/or lack thereof is something I experienced first hand. Could not quite explain it at the time. Then swapping in/out other more capable amps with more current/power which brought that back was a bit perplexing at that time. Quite an interesting realization that I sensed was going on yet could not explain what it was exactly. Thanks for posting this topic in this thread, I think this gets overlooked a lot fwiw.

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.

I built the Elekit TU-8600S kit with all the upgrades and put the new Western Electric 300Bs in it.  It’s fabulous and drives my 94dB speakers with ease.

highly recommended!

Thanks for the comments. Had a busy day. Need to think about @atmasphere comments bc the speakers I currently own have been driven pretty nicely with an 8w Sun Valley amp in a room larger than mine. (24 x 15 x 8 approx.). That said, there may have been additional tweaks that helped mitigate some issues you're mentioning.

Here’s a photo of them driving very similar (nearly identical) speakers to mine with the sun valley in the center. I’ll get back to the thread with more details when I can.

https://photos.fife.usercontent.google.com/pw/AP1GczNHf3PQV-V-aqEGWeygA7l6aycbB_8YIU8fzaz1k6x8Cap29ejjMN1e=w1441-h891-s-no-gm?authuser=0

I always thought the Audio Note Kits looked pretty nice:

https://ankaudiokits.com/product/kit1-kit1-10-300b-integrated-amplifier/