ebay Headphone Tube Amp kits. Anyone tried them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by marios_mar 

Ranging from tube cmoys to more complex designs. Has anybody built one? Or has anybody heard one?

The trick on ebay with tube amp kits is that most of what you think are fantastic deals come with no power supply whatsoever (or no tubes):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EL34-SE-V-Single-end-Tube-Amplifier-10W-10W-DIY-Kit-Stereo-No-Tube-/320878483649?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item4ab5d918c1

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6L6-SE-Tube-Amplifier-Kit-12AX7-and-6L6GCR-Stereo-/220710459980?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item33635e5a4c

Obviously, there are many more examples ...

Those that do come with a legitimate power supply included in the kit are often not cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6L6-SE-Valve-Tube-Amplifier-Full-DIY-Kit-12AX7-and-6L6GC-Stereo-/320939765871?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item4ab980306f

Finally, you have to remember that casework is anywhere from 30 - 50% of the cost of putting together an amplifier.  In the case of a true, high-voltage tube amp - or even one with a simple, low voltage line transformer - you can't just leave it uncased and out in the open ready to kill someone or start a fire.  Very few of these listings come with a case, or even suggest how you might go about developing one.

That said, there may be some good deals and reasonable sounding amps, but caveat emptor ...

Hi, I've just finished a little desktop hybrid headphone valve amp that I bought from ebay. I prefer it over the CMoy amp which was my previous project despite having installed a pair of OPA627BP's.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Under-25-00-DIY-12AU7-VALVE-Cmoy-Hi-Fi-Headphone-amplifier-KIT-Guaranteed-/200823089507?pt=AU_Electronics_Audio_Amplifiers&hash=item2ec1fd2963

I'm using a Electro-Harmonix 12AU7 and it sounds pretty good to me. I built it into a old chocolate tin and am using an 12V supply I found in a junkshop.

Does the Project Sunrise II qualifies as an "ebay kit"? It's been listed continuously for months now. It goes for 200$ complete with a PSU, tube and enclosure. Seems like a pretty decent kit to me, especially as a first kit for someone who just wants to gain experience putting electronics together.

Just MHO, but if you include tube hybrids (Sunrise is one), that's a different question.  It opens up an entirely different set of possibilities, many of which are long known here in the DIY section of Head-Fi (such as what's in your avatar - or someone else's).  

Hmm. The so-called "tube cmoy" is actually an hybrid, and since it's included as an example in the OP, I thought it meant all hybrids were included. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by marios_mar 

Ranging from tube cmoys to more complex designs. Has anybody built one? Or has anybody heard one?

I can't speak for the tube amps but I buy low-price solid state amps just for the case.  If I like the case, I discard or hack the innards and replace with a DIY project.  I don't have a workshop with fancy casework tools so I don't mind spending $40 just to get decent pre-built case. For example, Edifier HA11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frodo 

Hi, I've just finished a little desktop hybrid headphone valve amp that I bought from ebay. I prefer it over the CMoy amp which was my previous project despite having installed a pair of OPA627BP's.

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Under-25-00-DIY-12AU7-VALVE-Cmoy-Hi-Fi-Headphone-amplifier-KIT-Guaranteed-/200823089507?pt=AU_Electronics_Audio_Amplifiers&hash=item2ec1fd2963

 

I'm using a Electro-Harmonix 12AU7 and it sounds pretty good to me. I built it into a old chocolate tin and am using an 12V supply I found in a junkshop.

I should have mentioned that the kit I made was from fred_fred who is an Australian Head-fi member, I'm sure he can answer any questions.

The only other headphone amp I have at the moment is the Nuforce UDac2, which to tell the truth I've never really liked. The Nuforce of course has a much cleaner sound, you can hear a hiss with the tube/CMoy amp if you turn the volume right up when nothing is playing, but somehow it sounds warmer and more relaxed to me especially for Jazz. I use an Alien Dac and will be building a Starving Student and Objective2 amp soon, I'm just waiting for parts. I don't know your level of experience is, but I think the CMoys and small ebay hybrids are a good place to start for people like me who are just getting interested in DIY audio (I have a very basic grounding in electronics from a course I took 15 years ago), they are really satisfiying to build, I think they sound great, but I doubt they will be of much interest to really serious listeners. I definately recommend fred_fred2004 's kits, he was also really friendly when I asked him lots of noob questions.

I think it's very good, but I'm no expert. Like Tomb said in an earlier post, make sure the power supply and tube you want is available / and within your budget. I paid about $20 for the tube, but only $3 for the power supply,  so the total cost was about $50. I bought my tube from a seller on Amazon, but I'm sure there are much cheaper places.

If you have the time you might also think about the Starving Student Millet Hybrid, I've just built one based on a very straight forward strip-board design that TestSubject and other Head-Fi'ers worked on. Total cost for that was about $70.

My next project will be the Objective 2 amp, the most difficult part has been finding a suitable power supply.

It will work out to about double the cost of  fred_fred2004 's Cmoy/Tube hybrid, but I've seen some excellent reviews for it.

I have attached a photo of my completed CMoy/Tube Hybrid, you can probably fit it into something as small as an Altoids tin. I'm only a relative beginner to electronics and this was a very easy build even for me, it only took a few hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon.