These are pictures of a high-end tube headphone amp. It’s in the $1500+ range. Does this look like a reasonably assembled product for a supposedly world class instrument?

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1098035504.jpg

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1098035035.jpg

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1098035163.jpg

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1098035291.jpg

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1098034887.jpg



Mitch

Yipe!!

Was this assembled by the manufacturer or built from a kit ?

What make/model is it and if you have heard it....How does it sound ?

That’s as delivered from the manufacturer for $1500-$3000 depending on component choices.


Mitch

One word: "Eww!" :no:

Pure profit and Dogg Digital come to mind.

that looks like some of those all nighter breadboard projects i used to do up when i was younger!

It looks like a dog's breakfast to me, and one big picture of a dog's breakfast would have gotten the point across as effectively, IMO.

:)

Assembly line work has to be laid out by engineers so assembly is fast and easy. That mess was made by one person looks like to me. I would bet US.

Made in the good ole USA- Colorado.

The pictures are a compromise. The manufacturer has made an intense effort to keep the images off of the net. Claims of Patent Pending have been used to intimidate people?

Which seems to have led to this reviewer asking about Patent Applications.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/350087.html

The manufacturer claims the amp is well built. The people who have it say it sounds great and they don’t care what it looks like inside.

I posted here to get an unbiased view of the assembly practices.

A friend who had a problem with the amp and opened it up to see if he could fix it sent these pictures to me. I’ll be getting to look inside another of these amps this weekend.


Mitch

It's a nasty rats nest inside. Looks like something some amateur threw together on his kitchen table in a few hours. I don't care if it sounds good or not, I wouldn't own it. And again, I repeat, Eww! :puke:

It looks like a dog's breakfast to me, and one big picture of a dog's breakfast would have gotten the point across as effectively, IMO.

:)

Looks more like the dog's breakfast about 20 minutes after he finished eating it (the "end" result)

Anthony

...in the last photo, there is a pair of those gray twisty things that connect wire ends in lieu of solder. What are they called?? Anyway, such a devise has no place in a high-end circuit. Looks like sombody's stuck in the rat shack & hardware store phase of finding parts and pieces.

Laz :no:

It looks a lot like the bottom side of my Pioneer SX2000 tube reciever except for the wire nuts...

I know Analog engineers need things to be just so for grounding to work properly and such, but that looks way past that... :no: