[jtwrace]

one of these kits?  http://www.s5electronics.com/thome.html


If so, what are your thoughts?

[BobM]

Topround and his son (10) built the 8 watt stereo one over Christmas. I heard it yesterday and it sounded pretty good. However when we plugged the 300B amp back in it just blew this little breadboard amp away.

However it looks like a simple kit for anyone who want to get started with something very easy to put together and it does produce music.

[nullspace]

I built an amp similar to the stereo Model G (K502 from AES) as my very first DIY project some years ago, and I think it's as good as anything else for a first project. It's very easy to put together and I think it took me all of four or five hours from start to finish.

One positive is that lots of people have built these amps, made modifications, and posted online. So, if you find out you like doing this kind of stuff, there's plenty to keep you busy until you move on to bigger and better projects.

From a sonic perspective, it sounds pretty good. But for <$200 it's not the greatest thing ever -- it's niche is as a decent-sounding 'first' kit. Also, if you have any DIY amp experience then I'd think you wouldn't find it particularly interesting.

Regards,
John

[DaveC113]

Check out tubelab:

http://www.tubelab.com/

The Simple SE can be built between a couple hundred to over a grand in parts. There's no kit, but it's a very simple amp and there's a tubelab forum at diyaudio. You will end up with a really good amp too. I spent nearly a grand building it (mine is an el34 or kt88 with JJ ecc99 driver) and am very happy with the result.