A big thanks to all for your kind comments...much appreciated - by me AND the Feliks guys. We got there in the end, lol!
Lorspeaker - College kid? I wish!...Can hardly even remember my college days..
...except that life seemed much simpler then, aaahh...(If you can wait, the garden will look MUCH better in the Spring - especially when the Rhodos are all out!).
As for the amp's dimensions, they are : 197mm W; 280mm D; 72mm H (the front panel being 60mm).
A11 - Yes, not as large a footprint as thought...but big enough!... "Nicely proportioned" I would like to say.
sgbwill2 - Glad you've found us...better late than never!
. All I can say is you must have had a good bit of luck getting the LF 339 for that kind of money - they're $659 (old version) on ebay.com, which means more like $790 (or more) with average taxes. So for us in the EU, there's NO contest. And for you guys out West, you would have the added taxes etc. on the extra $160 over and above the $499 Elise (but I appreciate you will have shipping to add, if the LF's is free). So not really the same ball park, methinks!
synthax - Will ask Lukasz for recommended impedance range, but would suspect 32 to 600ohm.
Back to first impressions, and although it is still relatively early days I feel I must add to my previous comments after more burn-in. I am now in fact experiencing some very mixed emotions - this amp (still with stock tubes) is now delivering more than the LD with power tubes that alone would now cost more than the Elise, driven by $100 worth of C3GSs. So my head is going in all sorts of directions at the moment - amazement/joy/exhilaration, but also sadness - at the fact that after a year of experimenting with numerous tubes/adapter making/external power supply provision/MONEY! and occasional (costly) disaster, along comes this upstart and blows it all right out of the water...I don't know whether to hug Lukasz or kick him!! (Which of course means I would have to kick myself, lol!)...Deep breath...I'll KISS him after all
...as I write this I have some of my favourite music filling my head, and I never thought after hearing it hundreds of times already that I would be stopped in my tracks...enough said...
As this post is long enough already I shall go into more specifics later (had better pay a bit more attention to the good lady before I'm in the dog house - again!).