For the love of...kits?
My foray into audio began with speakers, then amps, and other components. Subs and room acoustics came next. And so on.
Early on, trying to find good sound meant doing a lot of research about brands and, to the degree possible, about the designs and parts used by better components.
Upgrading my stuff came next -- improving capacitors, volume pots, and other aspects of my gear. I’m lucky to have an amazing tech and builder in town. He’s been a godsend.
I have largely shifted away from the new market. If I do make changes, it’s nearly always buying and selling used. I sold some stuff, bought other stuff, compared and contrasted.
The tech mentioned above has sold me one amazing preamp and has loaned me a number of great pieces he’s built, either from kits or DIY. These have included an autoformer preamp, solid state preamp (based around a Burson buffer) and a really impressive Hypex-based Class D amp. All these units look nice enough, but not fancy. But, they’re dead quiet and have all the inputs and outputs you could want or need. Recently, he also loaned me quite a sweet little headphone amp. Also, quite amazing.
Yesterday, I purchased an Akitika GT-102 amplifier for a mere $450 on USAM. It’s hugely upgraded and I’m beginning to listen to it -- comparing it to my Pass XA-25 (as Herb Reichert did a while back) and my Quicksilver Mono 60’s.
I’m not sure, but I’m starting to get the distinct feeling that if one knows which DIY stuff to buy, which kits, the path to really amazing sound is not necessarily that expensive. In other words, a little knowledge can save a lot of money.
I’ll be looking at speaker kits, next.
This is not to say that DIY or kits replaces most of the finely made and researched gear out there. Rather, that for someone looking for the best sound for the money, they could do a lot worse than (a) really smart used shopping and (b) used kits or DIY kits of higher quality (such as Pass’s Amp Camp stuff, or the Akitika kit I just got, assembled).
Over and out.
As a budding audiophile, Dynakits and then Hafler kits were a great way to up the game with limited funds. @hilde45 Not long ago I was at the Akitika site looking at their offerings. I have no doubt this would be a fun build and am sure it would sound great. As pointed out above, there are some great tube amp kits from AN kits and Elekit. Also check out the amps from Analog Ethos--have to love the point to point wiring on this one and the unique casework he provides! |
@hilde45 I have not built any of the Analog Ethos kits but would not hesitate one moment to go with one of these kits. The el34b kit (upgraded version) would be my first pick. Very reasonable cost. Great customer support. I think this would pair beautifully with a full range driver kit. I know it would pair well with Omega speakers. Omega used to offer their drivers for sale before. You ought to contact Louis and see if he still offers these (if you are a good wood worker). Madisound offers good speaker kits as well. A couple of these have cabinets. Lastly, I have read good things about Lii audio. They make a very efficient fullrange 15 inch driver for an open baffle speaker. That would be a fun project to challenge your imagination and an easier build than a cabinet. Plus you could coordinate the design to match the Analog Ethos amp. Now that would be a doubly fun project and suspect it would sound just as great as it might look! |
