I am going the other extreme........Tube, no global negative feedback, single ended low power amp. I never have a tube hifi amp, so I don't know what to expect. Hell, my knowledge of tube amp is spotty at best. I designed a few tube guitar amps, but it's a different animal from hifi amp and there is a lot of try, listen and modify in tube amps. So I really don't know what I am getting into. That's why I bought a kit instead of trying to design and build.
This is the one I bought:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Douk-Audio-EL34-Vacuum-Tube-Amplifier-Single-ended-HiFi-Power-Amp-Kit-DIY-12W-2/281822570523?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 It was on sale for $248, I just could not pass that up. I received this about a week ago but I was still busy finishing up my other amp as some complication happened. Finally I finished that today and open the box.
Upon inspection, the chassis is a little cheap for my taste, but everything looks nice as seen in the picture and on the website. They already screwed the transformers and the connectors in. It is actually quite nice looking.....particularly for $248 shipped. It should be a nice amp for experimenting before I decide to sink in big money to build one. Hell, one of the Lundahl output transformer cost more than this amp kit!!! I heard a lot of comments that those Chinese amp are not so bad particular for the money.
Here is the schematic and a picture of what I have
My complain is that one piece of schematic is all they provided. Can you imagine if someone that does not have experience, tries to build this, that is not very comforting. AND more importantly, the color of the wires are written in Chinese!!! Luckily, I am Chinese origin, so at least I can read those few characters. The good thing is the circuit is really really simple.
This is the one I bought:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Douk-Audio-EL34-Vacuum-Tube-Amplifier-Single-ended-HiFi-Power-Amp-Kit-DIY-12W-2/281822570523?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 It was on sale for $248, I just could not pass that up. I received this about a week ago but I was still busy finishing up my other amp as some complication happened. Finally I finished that today and open the box.
Upon inspection, the chassis is a little cheap for my taste, but everything looks nice as seen in the picture and on the website. They already screwed the transformers and the connectors in. It is actually quite nice looking.....particularly for $248 shipped. It should be a nice amp for experimenting before I decide to sink in big money to build one. Hell, one of the Lundahl output transformer cost more than this amp kit!!! I heard a lot of comments that those Chinese amp are not so bad particular for the money.
Here is the schematic and a picture of what I have
My complain is that one piece of schematic is all they provided. Can you imagine if someone that does not have experience, tries to build this, that is not very comforting. AND more importantly, the color of the wires are written in Chinese!!! Luckily, I am Chinese origin, so at least I can read those few characters. The good thing is the circuit is really really simple.
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