[Happy Camper]

My first thing was putting the tubes in and flipped it on. Impetuous response I know.
 
Enjoy.

 

[levlhed]

So what's the verdict? "audiophile parts"?
I'm serious, I have no idea.

 

[MightyFine Shindig]

I don't have much if any knowledge at all about electronic circuitry (Unless you want me to calc the V, I & R )
But that looks pretty messy; could he have used bread board for this type of build? I'm not sure about HP amps but my DIY pedal had a bread board.

 

[levlhed]

It's "point-to-point", no breadboard.  I don't know that it should be "neater" but basically that's how I expected to see it put together.    I'm just trying to verify the seller's claimed use of audiophile/German capacitors/etc When I asked him about upgrading, he claimed it wasn't needed because it was "already upgraded"....which I find hard to believe...I *know* there's always upgrades in this business...one can argue about diminishing returns/etc but you *can* always get BETTER

 

[levlhed]

Well, strike one.  It was sold to me as having "Hi-end Tomiko's Power transformer", but I just noticed what I got doesn't match the picture in the auction and it says MCI on it!
 
EDIT: The seller's reply:
 
Yes, Like my last email, I am upgrate transformer for that, because the Tomiko transformer not goo for 6AS7 tube, becase the 6AS7 will over 3A on the Filament, Tomiko just for 2A, the MCI is 7A,
 When power up around 20  mins, the Tomiko too hot, I must upgrade it to MCI.
 You can see on the picture, the Tomiko was samll size then MCI. and the MCI was more expensive then Tomiko.
 
 

 

[brendon]

Well, most importantly, how does it sound ?

 

[stang]

lol I love how the seller states Internatilnal will add little bit shipping fee. I just looked at the shipping fee to Australia, and it is $90.99

 

[Skylab]

Point to point wiring in tube amps is a good thing, IMO - but that is far from the nicest p2p wiring job I have ever seen...

 

[atbglenn]

Quote:

Point to point wiring in tube amps is a good thing, IMO - but that is far from the nicest p2p wiring job I have ever seen...

X2 on both
 
PS, if you click on "internal picture" in my sig. You'll see how point to point should be done.

 

[Happy Camper]

That looks like a high school project. Very dangerous looking. As for parts, I don't see boutique caps like Black Gates but for the price, I wouldn't expect to. One cap would cost more than the amp.
 
How does it sound?

 

[levlhed]

Once I put a proper DAC in front of it and popped in a NOS 6922 I was impressed.  I wasn't too sure at first, but apparently the thing is quite revealing hence the need to throw higher quality into it..
So I think it sounds fine when I consider the price.  I wasn't blown away by it, but I'm not really sure what to expect.  No complaints for the price for sure.  Yeah, maybe it could have cleaner looking guts, but you don't see the guts when you're listening to music
 
Guess I'm going to be looking for a little USB DAC for it now, I was hoping to get away with a cheap USB sound card I have on hand!

 

[kevin gilmore]

This is singlepower all over again. Including the same misuse of a transformer primary as
a secondary. Would need the exact mci part number to be sure, but from the catalog, it
sure looks like the exact same thing with exactly the same schematic as the
singlepower extreme.
 
After staring at it a while, its definitely one of the primaries used as a secondary as
both windings are on the same side of the bobbin.
 
And the single filament rectifier diode is going to be getting VERY hot.
(under the filament cap)

 

[spritzer]

Wow, just wow.  How can people sell crap like that?  I'd send it back for a full refund and report the seller to ebay as this is far from safe to use. 

 

[atbglenn]

Quote:

Wow, just wow.  How can people sell crap like that?  I'd send it back for a full refund and report the seller to ebay as this is far from safe to use. 

I have to agree. It really is a horrible wiring job. 

 

[levlhed]

Is there a way for me to quickly test w/a meter to remove all doubt?