[Glady86]

This an old thread but anyway, I’m still enjoying the Elekit 8900. It’s all stock except the bypass capacitors. I tried to order the better transformers, but Victor won’t sell them separately to me, he advised me to sell my amp and start over with his kit. I’m not doing that anytime soon.

So instead, for now I bought a pair of RCA 2a3 VT-95 black plate double D getter tubes, and Westinghouse black plate 12BH7 drivers. For about $350.00 spent it was the single most obvious amplifier upgrade I ever experienced. I can’t imagine what the full blown upgraded version sounds like.

I never expected to hear that much difference, I should’ve just bought the antique tubes to start instead of messing with modern tubes.

[Tyson]

The Elekits are so good, I had to get $6k Sophia Electric monoblocks to actually beat my Elekit 300b/2a3 amp. 

[Glady86]

The Elekits are so good, I had to get $6k Sophia Electric monoblocks to actually beat my Elekit 300b/2a3 amp.

  Does your Elekit have the parts upgrades? I think a kit with all the most expensive upgrade parts and tube set could cost almost that much. The best sound I got out of it is with the vintage 2a3 tubes with 0 NFB and 12BH7 drivers which provides the bass punch that was lacking a little when I had Psvane Horizon 12au7 for the driver tubes. Without good driver tubes, the 2a3 was sounding a little to lean compared to the 300b tubes I tried. I think the 2a3 is the best choice for this amp, a least in my system. And surprisingly they drive the NX Oticas without strain to satisfying level.

[mkrawcz]

Found one hell of a tube amp deal on Amazon for $300. Oldchen EL34 single ended amp. 10 watts per channel, all point to point wiring with pretty decent parts inside. Sounds really good. Will definitely be upgrading the caps in this thing.

[goggle1824]

Dammit mkrawcz! You and your “finding” fun, new, inexpensive amps!!! 🤣

Will be fun to watch & see where THIS one goes. 😎

As it stands, where does it sit/stand/fall? among some of your other’s in your stable? You know, just so we have somewhat of a baseline. 🤔😅

[mkrawcz]

Only have a couple hours through it but right now, stock, it’s the best sub $1000 amp I’ve heard. I’m a little scarred to compare it to my ANK EL34. This one is pretty shocking. Not sure how it will act with other speakers, but it drives the NX-bravo towers perfectly.

[nlitworld]

You have to admit, the sub $500 market is looking pretty awesome these days. Great time for getting new audiophiles into the mix, or letting us seasoned members be pleasantly surprised and get into some cheap tinkering projects. 

[Glady86]

I got one for 270 bucks. I paid more than that for a pair of tubes for my Elekit. Will be interesting to hear how it compares.

[poseidonsvoice]

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/infamous-far-east-el34-single-ended-class-a-amp.436655/

Best,
Anand.

[Glady86]

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/infamous-far-east-el34-single-ended-class-a-amp.436655/

Best,
Anand.

Just reading a few comments, and some of these people are right away biased against it (cheap junk)  not safe, wrong cap values. If it sounds crappy I’ll send it back.

[goggle1824]

Just reading a few comments, and some of these people are right away biased against it (cheap junk)  not safe, wrong cap values. If it sounds crappy I’ll send it back.

I’m interested and following this thread, I hope you will share your listening thoughts here. Thx!

[mkrawcz]

Just reading a few comments, and some of these people are right away biased against it (cheap junk)  not safe, wrong cap values. If it sounds crappy I’ll send it back.

Seems to be a lot of “experts” in that thread. Yet the amp works perfectly fine and sounds fantastic.

[toocool4]

Glady86 / mkrawcz that’s why you take what anyone on a forum or reviewer says with a pinch of salt, best way is always to try with your own ears.

[NXSTUDIO-DRUMMER]

Glady86 / mkrawcz that’s why you take what anyone on a forum or reviewer says with a pinch of salt, best way is always to try with your own ears.

I see it from a positive, gathering constructive advice, and creative idea's, from AC members, which could assist providing a good solution.
Contributions are beneficial, rather you use them or not. Simply put, contributors help bring awarness, at least for me, by thinking even further outside the box. We can never have enough options to choose from, while seeking, "the best solution, that meets our needs ideally."

Regardless of viewpoints, hearing is subjective from one individual to another, like our taste for wine & cuisine. The better the menu options are,
chances for gratification increase.

For me, I'll always welcome a contributor's menu of advice!

[Glady86]

I’m interested and following this thread, I hope you will share your listening thoughts here. Thx!

Yes I will. I’m thinking the Oldchen will be noisier, less accurate and transparent compared to the Elekit, (or other higher priced units) but just from reading posts from some users, it still probably sounds very good stock. One guy claimed it sounds so good he was reluctant to change out the original coupling caps. Some other mods could improve noise ratio and possibly clarity, I would do those mods first.

[Glady86]

Seems to be a lot of “experts” in that thread. Yet the amp works perfectly fine and sounds fantastic.

Though it is some valuable information on the thread, would help understand the circuit and mod it. Though some of the posters come off as “arrogant” or can’t stand the idea of China selling good sounding gear so cheap.

[mkrawcz]

Yes I will. I’m thinking the Oldchen will be noisier, less accurate and transparent compared to the Elekit, (or other higher priced units) but just from reading posts from some users, it still probably sounds very good stock. One guy claimed it sounds so good he was reluctant to change out the original coupling caps. Some other mods could improve noise ratio and possibly clarity, I would do those mods first.

It has a slight hum but I have to put my ear right up to the woofer to hear it. I only have about 15 hours through it as of this post and it’s started opening up a lot. I decided to start swapping some tubes to see. Swapped the stock driver tubes for a pair of PSvane horizon 6sn7 and the clarity improvement was immediate. Just remember that EL34 tubes deliver a very different sound than 300b tubes. That’s the first thing you will notice. I’m going to opening it up today and check out the coupling caps, whatever is in it is not too bad. I happen to have a pair of Audionote copper foils that came out of my ANK Dac that I may put in.

[Glady86]

I think the coupling caps are .47uf. I have a pair of .47uf Auricaps in my parts bin. I don’t see much talk about those anymore. Probably better than what’s in there now. Also if I keep the amp, I might change the wiring layout, possibly replace or bypass the cheesy volume pot.

[mkrawcz]

I swapped out the stock .47 caps for .22 Audionote copper foils. This is working out very well. What great sounding little amp. Just need to finish break in, swap the stock EL34s and eventually figure out the slight hum whe the volume pot is all the way up.

[knotscott]

I'm late to the party on an old thread, but since you resurrected it I thought I'd share.  I had been doing vertical bi-amping with a pair of modified Dynaco 70s with the VTA boards for a couple of years and it was very good.  In 2023 I switched to a horizontal bi-amp setup, and added a solid state amp to the woofers....ultimately I ended up bypassing the passive low pass crossover, and adding an active low pass crossover in it's place.  Then later added an inline high pass filter to the tube amps with a silver mica cap to relieve them of bass duty below 60hz. 

Things improved on multiple levels with those changes.  The solid state amp (now a Linn LK140) does a much better job on the bottom octaves than the smallish tube amp did, so bass has better extension, and more impact and control.  The switch to a horizontal configuration also presented the tube amps with an easier to drive 8 ohm load vs 4 ohm, which added some unexpected clarity...filtering the low bass bass from the tubes brought even more clarity.  I can tweak the low pass crossover points, and the volume balance between the solid state and tube amps.  Other changes and tweaks have been applied over time, but overall it's been a very positive improvement with a best of both worlds scenario.