Creating a new thread for this amp because I couldn’t find one here.
I just bought a kit, excited to build and experience a tube amplifier! I was eying the WA33 and Decware amps for a long time but the Bakoon x Susvara amp was good enough, but I always wanted to build an amp so when this new model came out couldn’t resist.
Opted for the Lundahl transformer upgrade(non amorphous core, since it’s not available yet), and the caps upgrade.
Would love to hear experiences from others who have built an Elekit amp or have listened to one.
I don’t have any speakers yet, but may get one of those Fritz speakers in the future! I will use this amp with a Susvara headphone and the DCS Bartok DAC for now. And getting the 2A3 tubes.
I think we would all enjoy it if you snapped a few pictures as you built the amplifier! Not asking for a full build log, but it would be fun to see progress as you go.
Yeah absolutely! I will try to keep a build log as well I have soldered diodes and resistors on keyboard pcbs in the past so hoping I am good to go on that front ha ha.
The folks I have known who have done the Elekits in the past have been reallly happy they got the upgrades. They can be quite remarkable amps by all accounts. I think you’ll be happy with the performance. This is of course referencing previous models but I imagine the performance will stand up.
I messed up soldering in one spot I was using a silver solder with no flux and it’s been really difficult to work with it because it doesn’t flow nicely. Waiting for the Cardas solder to come tomorrow and then going to resume working on the pcb again.
The Bottlehead Crack manual has sharp warnings about solder types. They recommend simple 60/40 or 63/37 tin and lead, so that’s what I got (0.8mm diameter). It was very easy to use.
I’m not sure if one could heat non-60/40 solders to the proper temperature without damaging parts/boards with some builds. The factories use assembly line hardware with dunk-tanks and other stuff we don’t have.
I got to demo a 8900 because someone commissioned a build from me. Only had prior listening experience with a maxed 8800 and i personally prefer elekit better in 2a3 SET DHT. Elekit house sound appears to be tuned dry, colder, thinner, and neutral tilt with good transient and macro performance; basically a modern tube sound. If you expect a warm, lush, romantic classical tube amp this is not it (and i believe Victor pushes classical sounding tubes so people don’t complain that it doesn’t sound tubey). Vcap CuTF is legit good mod although after hearing this amp i would rather have a jupiter in the amp to tilt it warmer. I currently don’t prefer amorphous OPT on a cap coupled amp based on my other experiences in DIY. The amp IMO sounds much better for speakers than for headphones.
I have soldered diodes and resistors on keyboard pcbs in the past so hoping I am good to go on that front ha ha.
I was using a silver solder with no flux and it’s been really difficult to work with it because it doesn’t flow nicely. Waiting for the Cardas solder to come tomorrow and then going to resume working on the pcb again.
