[greenleaf]

which one would you pick?
or should I just make both?

thanks!
greenleaf

 

[rb67]

I think you know the answer already..

.....
(both)

I built a CKKIII and am considering a SOHA to dip my feet into tubes.

 

[Yen]

Well, depend on your taste and preferences.

If you are one tinkerer and you like to play and tweak, soha is more versatile. There are numerous tubes to try from cheap to costly (one that costs more than the whole amp). Also, you can play with film output caps, tube heater electrolytics, opamp etc...

But if you just want to build one amp then forget DIY, then CKK3 would be better choise. With solidstate, you cant go much wrong, building is simple and straightforward. The amp's operation is more stabile than tubes.

IMO.

 

[ferencvaros]

built both amps and I use them with 595
both are very good, it is hard to say which is better

 

[tcpoint]

Both.

 

[headphonejunkie]

I like my SOHA. It is easy to change tubes which can change how your amp sounds too. You can't do that with solid state except maybe to op amp roll. The SOHA can op amp roll too.

 

[duchamp]

Jeff at Glass Jar Audio offers kits for both. I'm building a CKKIII right now and am almost done. The kit saved me LOTS of time sourcing parts. Several of the kits are new on his site and the Kumisa was the only solid state amp he had a short time ago. Looks like he's expanding! I would love to see a Dynalo kit, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Jeff is great to deal with and offers extremely fair prices. I told him I would give him a plug here after hearing from him that he mostly hangs out on HeadWize. Here's the site-

http://www.geocities.com/jeffrossel/

 

[dBel84]

You may well end up building both but I would suggest that you choose one and build it well. My personal preference is the CKKIII, I believe it is a superior amp. The SOHA has the potential to be a great amp, the standard build is good but the addition of the discrete or monolithic buffers make it shine. The good thing is that neither will be disappointing, have fun..dB

 

[JackH]

I can personally attest to the fact that the CKKIII and HD-595s make a great combination!

 

[greenleaf]

I'm going for a ckk3 kit from Jeff

 

[dBel84]

great choice, not sure how Jeff manages to offer such great deals, I guess he is in it for the love of the hobby and not the profit margin. Be sure to read the setup instructions from AMB's website ( http://www.amb.org/audio/ck2/ ) and it would be worth your while to pay the few extra dollars to get Jeff to match the input Toshibas..dB