Building a HiFi amp

[beasleybodyshop]

Is it worth it? Im seeing the prices on ebay.....couple grand to get a decent one? Hell Im never going to pay that kind of money - Anyone ever take a crack at building one?

I see kits for building them at all the various amp part vendors - Are these kits worth building? Im looking at this one in particular:http://store.triodestore.com/diy35kit.html

My question is - is it worth it? Or should I save my pennies and shell out for a factory made one? Thoughts?

[pops]

I bought an old Fisher tube stereo missing parts at a flea market for $5. took me a long time to find a schematic and the tubes(rare) but after getting the parts two hours and it was working. That was over 20 years ago, still working. Look for one needing work and save. just a thought

[beasleybodyshop]

Yeah I think your right. Going to keep my ears to the ground.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Lots of excellent second hand gear available - and you can always build your own too. Have a look at Audio Asylum. Lots of good ideas, practically every question there could be, has been answered.

[Cantplay]

I have a nice pair of Fisher 80AZ, and a pair of Dynaco Mk III.

John

[morcey2]

I picked up a stromberg carlson console stereo that I was going to strip for parts, but it just sounds too good. I don't remember the model, but the power amp in it is an ASR-120 which is similar to the Dynaco ST-70, but with 7408 power tubes (6V6s) and no UL screen connection. It's got some hum in it right now and I'm going to give it a cap job here soon. It even came with 2 spare sylvania 7199s.

Matt

[crbowman]

I've built an Audio Note Kit 4 which is a real nice unit for not much dinero.
I've also got an old Dynaco Stereo 70 that I've rebuilt and modded a couple of times. I think both sound great and really were not difficult. You don't really have the same kind of gain issues in these that you have in guitar amps. The circuits are usually pretty simple, and, again usually, there is more real estate inside the chassis. I think it's worth it!

[morcey2]

Something else to look at is the Harmless project over at ax84.com:

http://www.ax84.com/static/harmless/harmless_r0.pdf

It's just a little single-ended amp using a champ OT as a pseudo-UL output. A couple of guys over there have built them and they're supposed to do pretty well for a low-budget tube hi-fi.

Matt

[Teleguy61]

The big issue for tube hi-fi equipment is what you are trying to power with it.
Many contemporary speakers are very inefficient, using the crossover to equalize between drivers, while dumping lots of watts.
Tube equipment with relatively high efficiency stereo speakers, JBL, Altec etc, sound great.
Klipsch Heresys with 10 watts per channel-plenty sound I think.

[M Fowler]

Edcor has project transformer sets and info on building stereo or mono block amps.

[pops]

My son had a pair of Voice of the Theater speakers that i would have loved to have for my little tube amp, but they were just too big. He sold them, they were also too expensive.

[beasleybodyshop]

Any TAG members feel like posting a photo of their HiFi rig? Im thinking of making/buying something along the lines of a desktop studio monitor setup - two speakers in stereo, with the front and center position being the "sweet spot"

I had considered just buying some decent powered desktop monitors, but in the interest of furthering my addiction and seeing what all the fuss is about in the Hifi world, there is only one way for me to go

[Buschman]

Dynaco st70s are pretty easy to find and rebuild. Mine sounds great every Saturday morning. I also run movies through it. Dynaco PAS3 is my preamp I believe. Old Cerwin Vega speakers that I repaired the foam on. Kits for that are also easy to find. Building kits would be great but this is a great way to see if it is important to you. I have a Heathkit w5m and would love to find a brother to it. They have gotten popular and pricey. Some audiophiles believe that price is no object but my cheap system sounds very warm and live to me.

[John_P_WI]

Any love for McIntosh?

[Leo_Gnardo]

Any love for McIntosh?

Pair o' 240's, & a '75 Mac amps, built like the proverbial brick shithouse. When "engineering" meant "build it so it won't break."

Plus needing work, MR74 tuner & MX110 tuner-preamp. Tuners, eventually need servicing.