One more strike against it, and a huge strike. At $200 for the mobile kit plus assembly, one is well on the way to a Crack or a better product. I’ll let this idea rest.
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Pete’s new DIY Sangaku kit is my new daily driver/work amp replacing the Trusty ole AMB M3. Really like how this amp sounds with revoice/retune. Default build has major issues with major bass bloom and inorganic timbre so i deviated from the scheme a little bit and added a few upgrades. This is the most Fun sounding amp i’ve ever heard heard in the ~$500 category. Don’t think the PSU is very beefy on this either, but it works well and i have no desire to change it even though i am more than capable of dropping in Sigmas and a Maida.
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This is very interesting. Have you written up the mods required? While I’m able to build a kit, I’m not confident that I can find appropriate substitute parts when out of stock or discontinued (as above). Furthermore, modifying an amp kit to shape its tone and timbre is entirely beyond my skills. I need a cookbook or paint-by-numbers guide.
If the missing parts issue can be resolved, I’m up for building either the NuHybrid or the DIY Sangaku. As seemingly a good technology with good sound quality, I hope NuTube can find a sustainable niche and survive.
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I have wrote about the mods, not officially in a post or anything. One other person has been following me on this journey that i know of and has a very similar setup. What voicing i prefer may be different than anyones’ ideas. Also, i tuned mine specifically for HD6x0/580 so it might not work for everyone or cater their tastes. I purposely described this as a “Fun” sounding amp. It’s not neutral, it’s not linear, not wet and romantic sounding. Might be slightly v shaped or dubya.
Voicing an amp is an important DIY skill (goes way beyond DIY actually) that i don’t think gets enough focus. Not all amps respond positively to changes either or can be easily modified. This Nutube sangaku amp apparently does and that’s why i became interested in this project; when i discovered the sound it makes correlates very very high with the Nutube. Takes a lot of tinkering and being able to hear differences. I have boxes of spare parts, other amps that i can pull stuff from at will and change on the fly. Chain building is more of the holistic perspective that im into since i only build around 1 reference headphone and speakers. I can change a tube in my DAC or CDTransport to change the sound downstream as desired. There’s a difference between modding for the nervosa of putting fancy parts in or having an actual target sound. The amp is the sum of all the parts and sometimes, the only objective is to maintain Alignment with upstream gear. Done this so much, i associate parts with sound now.
I left out/changed a lot of parts in my build for availability and personal reasons. You will notice im using a 18v transformer vs the default 15v. I had to increase the 4 PSU cap specs very carefully so that it still fits. I ditched the current limiter, ditched cathode cap and all ceramic caps in the triode section, made the amp Single Ended only, lowered the gain, used a different IEC, used Dale resistors, added additional feedback, etc. This is my first experience where i added negative feedback to an amp to make it sound better. Usually it’s the other way around; but i gotta do what’s necessary even if its not the purist thing to do.
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