May I show-off my new website, for those who know (and know of) me? Audio Note at The Audio Home..

I have three Decware products. Their Zen ZP3 phono preamp, a Torii Jr. and a Mini Torii.

Yes, they all do have that D.I.Y. look about them. But to me, it is a good look.

The Decware amps are the only tube amps that I like to have on display. The Torii Jr. is sitting on top of the commercial sub, even without any wires attached to it.

The other tube amps, I keep behind the TV, out of sight.

 

That is interesting, I wondered why the kit business was a separate company.

I seen and built a few kits in my time and I have to say, this is a really nice kit. This thing weighs 50-lbs.

The PrimaLuna Prologue Five weighs just


And it is just one watt more powerful than the L4. Their Prologue Four with EL34's has the same power as the L4 at 35-WPC.

From the PrimaLuna web site;

Want the ultimate? Classic Ultralinear all-tube sound, with all the body and glory that you could ask for. For an additional $250 over the EL-34 equipped Prologue Four, you will get an amplifier that has more power, better bass authority, and a little more air on top, but never edgy.

I think that the PrimaLuna is a nice sounding amp. It has more power than I would ever need to run the A7's. The bass is excellent, but the Bass on the L4 blows the Five away in the bass department and it only has modern day EL34's. I am stumped at how they do that?

I have a pair of Rogue M-150 KT88 driven monoblocks that have some serious power and some serious bass. But, each of them weighs 55-lbs, five pounds more than the two channel L4 weighs. So it can be expected, with a quad of KT88's and a ultralinear output of 150-Watts.

This little AN kit amp, can not play as loud, but has bass that is just as authoritative.

The AN kits, may be the "value menu" members of the AN family and their specs may not quite be up to those of the parent company, but for the money (the L4 as a power amp kit sells for $2k), but for that money and a little time, the end result is so really sweet music. Very impressed wiht the L4!

Of course, one of these days, I will feel obliged to compare it to a KingCo.

 

My Black Spring promotion is working. For the prices that I offer, for March and April purchases only, SH.tv members are asking for prices, and are buying Audio Note products of all kinds. Thank you for your business.

I will be unavailable this Monday through Wednesday (3/12-3/14), so don't worry about a little delay if you PM me during that time.

 

All good points @Richard Austen. Once you build a few kits, you start to get an understanding of how expensive good parts can be. On the flip side, you also realize the corners that need to be cut to reach a certain price point. Case in point. I just built an Elekit TU-8600 300B SET amp kit. Base price was $1085 at the time (w/0 tubes). I spent $2400 for all the upgrades - custom Lundahl transformers, Takman resistors, Mundorf Silver Gold Oils and Gold Lion tubes. You can look inside a lot of $5000 and above amps and find lesser transformers, capacitors and tubes. Thick aluminum faceplates add very little to sound quality. You can also buy a lot of $10,000 plus speakers with cheap drivers. I just built a pair of AN Speaker Kit-04's with drivers that and crossovers that retail for close to $8000. Apparently Aluminum, Nickel and Cobalt magnets cost a whole lot. I'll take better parts quality every time. Which means I almost always have to break out my soldering iron and router because those commercial Audio Note products (with the fancy parts) are crazy expensive.

 

For those who participated in the Group Buy of Namiki replacement stylus (Boron/MicroRidge), from the latest correspondence from Namiki, they estimate the last week of April. They are making them from scratch for us.

 

As you know I have had to move flats and due to my new living space I will be placing my stereo components (AN M3 and TT2 Turntable) on the right side of my stereo - a large concrete slab so stability for the turntable will now be as strong as it can possibly get

But due to the position I need to buy two 2 meter runs of IC cables. From the preamp to the power amp and from my DAC to Preamp. I use AN V to connect CD player to DAC (although I am now in the market for a CD player since my LM is going to consignment along with the DAC.).

I am looking at going with AN Lexus because it is affordable (well sort of) and I feel more confident in a larger gauge over a longer distance. Lexus got pretty impressive reviews from users but i have never actually compared them directly with the AN V or Vx. I have compared my AN V with Tara Labs and the latter was so horrible in comparison that I chucked them in the rubbish bin! Ok they were only $70 and the AN V is like 10 times more so it should be better.

AN silver is out of my price range I suspect. Even the Lexus is a bit pricey. I kind of can't see spending more on cables than a pair of AX Two loudspeakers. I am trying to build a complete AN set-up so while other cable makers may be good suggestions for now I want to "try" and stay with the same cable process throughout.

Speaker cables are AN Spe. My turntable uses the arm 1 which is one of AN's copper wiring I have a Lexus modified power bar. I kind of wanted silver all the way but my sanity on my budget has taken over.

TIA

 

Hello Warren,

Thank you for offering this great promotion.

As someone who is slowly building up an Audio Note system this presents a great opportunity to enhance my system.
I will be contacting you (via PM) for your recomendation on the appropriate AN phono stage to marry up to my Oto SE Signature.

Cheers,

Hugo

 

I added another line of equipment to my offerings at The Audio Home. It is TRIANGLE ART, everything made in California, USA. Their equipment is local pick-up for me, which helps me offer a significant savings to local customers: no shipping cost, which is quite substantial for these turntables.

Have you seen the turntables from them? They are over-the-top gorgeous. And I have been a BIG fan of their cartridges for a long time. In fact, I have been using their turntables, tonearms and cartridges at audio shows for the past few years. See them here, from the TRIANGLE ART website: Analog – TriangleArt

Their Zeus and Apollo cartridges are quite phenomenal in sound.

So, I added an announcement and a picture to my website: www.TheAudioHome.com

 

Hi Warren - is there an update on delivery from Namiki? Thanks.

 

Yes, there is an update. They told me they will ship from Japan on May 11.