Pundit
Post by belbo on Apr 9, 2019 7:51:12 GMT 12
Herb Reichert just reviewed this kit amplifier in Stereophile and gave it a rave review: www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-27-elekit-tu-8600r-amplifier-kitI have to say that I'm intrigued by Single-ended triode designs and they are on my list to try at some point. This specific one comes at an excellent price (1,100 USD for the basic kit 1800 for the one with more audiophile parts) and seems like a great way to get introduced to their merits. The Elekit brand is getting more and more positive publicity and I really like the fact that quality sound can be approachable to more people. Reichert also is not afraid to praise cheaper equipment (he did it recently with the Pioneer PLX-1000 dd turntable). Sadly my building skills are really pathetic, so the only way I will ever be able to get hold of this amplifier is buying it used - oh well...
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 9, 2019 8:54:06 GMT 12
Nice - Herb Reichert knows a thing or two about triode amp building, he has built (& designed) many DIY triode amps himself in the past, back in the 90s, in the Sound Practices days. We have been impressed with the Elekit amps here a while back, being made in Japan, they are nicely conceived & will be carefully made I'm sure, with quality parts. American distributor, VK Music, will assemble for you if you wish (for a small fee), if I recall correctly. Thanks belbo.
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 9, 2019 9:06:54 GMT 12
Here's a pic of the kit parts, from the VK Music webpage. Note also (i) how the transformer wiring is provided with plug/socket connections, to make assembly easier (ii) the power transformer is an elegant R-core type, for low EMF/noise radiation. 
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Post by colinf on Apr 9, 2019 19:11:17 GMT 12
Keep practising that wonderful art of soldering, Belbo! 😀 It will bring kit building and thus lower costs into reach. I’ll be here to help you through it if you need. The Elekit looks reasonably straight forward. Just watch the polarity of the electrolytic capacitors to install on the board.
AMR-iFi R&D
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Pundit
Post by belbo on Apr 9, 2019 19:16:35 GMT 12
Keep practising that wonderful art of soldering, Belbo! 😀 It will bring kit building and thus lower costs into reach. I’ll be here to help you through it if you need. The Elekit looks reasonably straight forward. Just watch the polarity of the electrolytic capacitors to install on the board. Thanks a lot colinf but unfortunately I don't have even the most basic electronic knowledge as most of the group here has. I did get a soldering iron which I've used to fix a couple of connections but that's as far as I can go unfortunately. Maybe one day though, it's such a creative hobby 
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Post by colinf on Apr 9, 2019 19:36:37 GMT 12
If you can hook up an amplifier to speakers and plug it in to power, you have basic electronic knowledge. That just involved the + and - of the speaker connection and an electronic device, the speaker. Building the kit is just a matter of following instructions, you don’t necessarily need to know how or why at this stage. You have to start somewhere! 😀 Just as long as the soldering iron is a decent one, and use tin-lead solder, which is much easier to solder with than silver solder.
AMR-iFi R&D
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Pundit
Post by belbo on Apr 9, 2019 20:01:54 GMT 12
Thanks a lot for the encouragement colinf! How long would you say it would take an amateur to build something like this?
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 9, 2019 20:50:19 GMT 12
When I built my first kit amp, it took me a long time, many days. But there's nothing wrong with that.... read instructions, think about it, do it slowly, don't rush, step by step, keep a tidy work-space. It's a learning process that way. Elekit have made this kit as easy as possible, providing a PCB board, which saves a lot of wiring & soldering & thinking. Just practice the basic soldering technique beforehand, eg...
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Post by colinf on Apr 10, 2019 5:37:11 GMT 12
It’s hard to say how long it would take, everyone is different! Weeks to be thorough and learn at the same time, or days if you’re feeling ok with a soldering iron. I’d take the weeks approach, and practise soldering first. But don’t worry how long it takes, you’ll just know when you feel ready to take the next step, one step at a time. Don’t worry about being frustrated. Remember how awkward it felt to learn to drive a car? (If you do drive a car!) Solder on some thin-ish wires first just to get a feel of how much solder to apply and how long to leave the iron on the joint for. From the sound of it you’ve soldered speaker cables before but that might not be a great place to start soldering as it can take a bit of effort to solder a relatively thick cable. Try some thin wire first as it will simulate soldering a component to a circuit board more closely. 😊
AMR-iFi R&D
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Member
Post by SONDEK on Aug 2, 2019 14:08:09 GMT 12
BUMP!
Hi guys
I thought I'd give this thread a BUMP as this new(ish) ELEKIT 300B looks like a winner!
Also, it seems that the up-spec LUNDAHL OPT version is available again. Very tempting!
Anybody given it a crack?
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