[Poultrygeist]

I placed this ebay preamp in two decorator's boxes glued together. Tried it today with a Lepai but bought it to use with a Sure Tripath. I plan to roll the tubes but with the Chinese tubes the sound is down right impressive.

[Poultrygeist]

[Poultrygeist]

[Poultrygeist]

The top with the cut out for the tubes once provided ventilation for my pc hutch. 

[jmc207]

That's really nice looking! Do you know of a good source of these Decorator boxes?

Thanks, John

[persisting1]

I was hoping someone would take the plunge and try out some of the C&C DIY preamps on eon eBay. There are just so many of them. Glad to hear you like it.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=preamp+kit&_sacat=0&_odkw=pream+kit&_osacat=0&_from=R40

[Poultrygeist]

The decorator boxes came in a set of three from Tuesday Morning. The wood is very hard and has Honduras stamped on the bottom. Mahogany? I think I paid $10 for the set and didn't use the largest one. These are much better than the soft wood boxes from craft stores plus they came stained and finished.

The preamp is the 6N3 model with the added rectifier tube. I have some WE396A's which are said to be very good replacements for the 6N3.

I added the toggle switch/plate cover and a fuse and holder from Radio Shack. The plate jacks on the back are in wall plates from PE that I bought a few years ago on close out for $1.00 and I just added two additional jacks.

I'm not skilled enough to solder directly into the board for the inputs and outputs. So I soldered some left over RCA ends from an IC project with lead wires to the rear pin and lugs and plugged them into on board RCAs. I did this as the on board RCAs look fragile and probably wouldn't stand up to my constant swapping of gear.

There's a huge thread at AK on the Guanzo preamp which is much the same as this one sans the rectifier tube. I bought this preamp ( preamp + 110v transformer ) with a plexi top cover ( not used ) from a very helpful Chinese guy at Pokerelectronic on ebay.

This was a fun weekend project for a novice like myself.

[ttan98]

I was hoping someone would take the plunge and try out some of the C&C DIY preamps on eon eBay. There are just so many of them. Glad to hear you like it.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=preamp+kit&_sacat=0&_odkw=pream+kit&_osacat=0&_from=R40

I bought this tube preamp buffer(see below) and I and quite please with its performance, initially I intended to modify it but so far I did change anything. I have the circuit diagram for this preamp anyone interested I can post it to them. Very cheap and works very well. I use it to drive my power amp and subwoofer amp, lots of drive and very quite.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tube-6N3-Buffer-Audio-Pre-amplifier-Pre-AMP-Kit-For-DIY-/320588425913?pt=US_Amplifier_Parts_Components&hash=item4aa48f2ab9

[Noseyears]

Ahh..ebay, you can find some hidden gems BUT you need to be cautious when choosing. There are poorly designed ones with bad thermal management.

[Poultrygeist]

Not much risk here as the AK thread on the Guanzo has been going on for several years.

[wushuliu]

Not much risk here as the AK thread on the Guanzo has been going on for several years.

Have you tried replacing the caps at all? Not sure which vendor you got them but I am always wary of fake caps, resistors etc. and everytime I have swapped them out of any of these kits from China the sound quality shoots up a couple notches. Just something to think about.

[Poultrygeist]

If they're fake then I like the way fake sounds

[wushuliu]

If they're fake then I like the way fake sounds

Tru dat. If it ain't broke...

[Letitroll98]

There's no link provided, but from the AK thread you just put "Buffer Pre-amplifier" in the eBay search and you get listings of both the original 2 tube Guanzo preamp, and the one with a rectifier tube pictured here, and a few others.  There's multiple sellers, some kits clearly display a transformer included, some hint there may be one, Pg recommended Pokerelectronic which has both kits listed.  Looks like fun, I may dive in here. 

[Poultrygeist]

Here's the link to the one I bought and I lied it's really $58.

If you buy this one or one like it I'll provide info on the connections as they come with no directions. The transformers are different from one seller to another.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Magic-Sound-Buffer-6N3-x-2-6Z4-Tube-Preamp-AMP-220V-110V-Transformer-/261073235706?_trksid=p5197.m1992&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14%26meid%3D5134311687479745744%26pid%3D100015%26prg%3D1006%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D261073235706%26

[Noseyears]

If they're fake then I like the way fake sounds

Let me show you the internals:




this people know how to make fake caps and fake sound.  JK

[underdawg]

wow I have never seen that before good to know. Thank you for including pics.

[G Georgopoulos]

Let me show you the internals:




this people know how to make fake caps and fake sound.  JK

Fake caps will fail on power up if the volts of the cap is different(low),what is your point you try to make?

[Noseyears]

Fake caps will fail on power up if the volts of the cap is different(low),what is your point you try to make?

Kidding my friend, you made a valid point Btw.

[wushuliu]

Holy crap. You can buy another version of the tube pre on Amazon. That's hilarious. In fact look at all the tube pre choices on Amazon. The Qinpu has 117 reviews which means it's sold a LOT more. The big audio companies are not going to let that continue for long...

http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-Assembled-Headphone-Amplifier-Transformer/dp/B008BGLN5G/ref=sr_1_19?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359231596&sr=1-19&keywords=tube+preamp