Audio Note Kit DAC 2.1 Build

I did as suggested and wrapped the wire around the lug before soldering this time...WAY easier and the joints look more secure. Feeling better about the way this looks.

 

I built a VTA ST-70. It certainly had a lot of steps, but the ANK instructions were more confusing for me. YMMV.

John K.

 

That looks way better. I was reading this thread with the intention of suggesting you redo those joints. If it were me, I would've drilled the hole out on the lug to accept the wire. But your solution looks fine. Good luck with the rest of the build.

 

Oooh boy, look what just showed up! I'm just a couple film caps and one missing resistor away from having everything.



Also, in other "fixing my own eff ups" news, I have a habit of leaving my leads a little long and was able to push the large resistors back through just enough to clear the board. Retested them all after and I managed not to overheat anything in the process. Hopefully I can stop getting in my own way from here on out.

 

I will say that as my unit runs in it's sounding very nice indeed. It replaced a Parasound Halo JC-2, no slouch in its own right, and I think the L3 is easily its equal, with the benefit of that tubey goodness. I do have the C-core output transformer upgrades. Since ANK was so behind in getting my kit to me they generously added the upgrade to my kit.

John K.

 

Nice! I have a Parasound Hint and, if this ends up going well, I might look into building a whole system in the future. I'm seriously taking my time now so I don't have to redo anything again. I also got some upgrades for my inconvenience (AN Copper film caps).

So here we go, completed power board minus wiring. Obviously still waiting on R7 there. That white Evo cap is a little awkward, as the pads are spread out a good inch beyond the cap body. Looks funky, but leaves room for future mods I guess.

 

Comming along. You can use a drill for those twisted pairs. Not to tight though.

 

Are you soldering from the bottom of the board? You should be.

 

Yes, but there is a pad on the top and the bottom, for whatever reason, and there's nothing I can do to keep the solder from flowing to both sides. Some of the traces are on the top side, so I think it's by design.

 

I bought an ANKit amp, from another member. But he had it professionally assembled. After I received it I was confused about connecting the speakers. Each channel has three banana connectors in a vertical arrangement. From the bottom, going up, there was a black connector on top of that one was another black connector and then one red connector.



When I looked up in the manual, I found this:



Confused by seemingly two speaker grounds (why?) and then one "red" connector, what is the ohm value?

The manual shows one thing and my amp is not the same as in the manual.

So, I contact the seller and he tells me that he had forgot to mention this to me, but the middle terminal is 4-Ohms and the top connector is 8-Ohms.

I said OK (puzzled)? The seller explained to me that they had run out of red connectors so the sent an extra black pair in the kit!

This struck me as beyond stupid! I have never owned any amplifier where they ran out of speaker connectors in one color, so they substituted another color!

Now, this is a $2,000 KIT. For $2,000, you get a box of parts and they don't even give you the correct parts!

It looked like you were not able to hold the wire steady when you made the solder connection, judging from the way the solder flowed on the different connections and the lack of a shiny solder joint.

But (excuse the dust!), they should have provided you with lug connectors to slide over the transformer taps (This is a close up of the ALK crossovers on the A7's).

You should not have to soldered the leads directly to the transformer.

At least, the connections on your circuit board are shiny! With a basic electrical connection, it will still work with a cold solder joint. But, when you get up to RF frequencies, things can get dicey if a proper hot solder connection is not made.

I mean, while some kits include the solder, most do not. Everyone that I knew, including me, always bought their own spool of solder, soldering iron, kit assembly tools, etc...

As to the "silver solder", silver solder is not a good thing. I would NEVER put anything together using silver solder. Silver solder is used in the UK due to government regulations. It is not a superior solder and is difficult to work with.

Silver solder requires a significantly higher heat to make the connection and it is almost impossible to un-solder with out risking damage to the copper wire itself.

The superior solder is 60% tin, 40% lead, rosin core, for electrical connections.

 

I agree! I was confused as to why they gave me two wires with connectors on the end that goes to the outlet, but bare wire on the other side for the transformer. If it's good enough for one end, it should be good enough for the other, no? Why not just save me the hassle and give me wires with spades on both sides?

 

Good God, these instructions have become increasingly convoluted. There's a random note in the section describing the wiring for the M2 power supply board. The note inexplicably explains what wires to use for the digital power supply board to the transformer...which has its own section like 15 pages farther down and doesn't include that information while it's actually relevant, lol. I'm over here looking around for a blue twisted pair like it described in the digital PSU wiring guide, when 15 pages back it told me to use the yellow and orange ones.

@thegage - The "turn left 3/4 mile before the church" comment is just hilariously spot on

 

I really took my time today, but I'm on pace to finish everything I can do without the missing parts. Finished attaching the wires to the main power board and populated the digital power board. I should have a couple hours to build the output board tomorrow, but still waiting on those caps. It's kinda nerve-racking not being able to test any of my work because of one stupid resistor. Regardless, I should have everything finished besides final wiring and testing before my vacation officially ends on Monday.

 

Well I hope the sound quality makes up for the hassles. I am reviewing something that has some really dopey aspects as well but the sound quality is above the price point. Still I am not sure how a kit can be missing parts.

You would think that there would be a facility where the each Kit would have all the parts placed in bags - one person would put all the parts in the bag, a second person would then open the bag and have a checklist and tick the box to make sure all the parts are in the bag (maybe even have a few extras just in case) and then a third person to recheck again. But at least have the first 2 people.

 

I have read differing views on silver solder regarding the pro side of the equation but I don't build gear. With AN using silver wiring in their better products - terminating with a matching material holds some logic - they do also have all silver resisters now as well which were apparently a huge pain in the butt to manufacturer.

At 1:30

 

The only thing that's "missing" really was a resistor that was 1k instead of 100k. When the box first arrived, I was pissed cause it didn't have the digital board or AN film caps and no explanation for why. Later found out they were being sourced from the US and shipped right to me. Got the digital board today and caps haven't arrived yet. Poor communication on that one. He kept pushing the ship date back and back and I started to get upset so I feel like he rushed it out the door, which doesn't make a lot of sense. When I ordered he said "give us a week". I checked the following week to see if he still planned on shipping on time and he said "YES!". Then it didn't ship until the following Thursday, and with half the kit not in the box. The website says three weeks, which is fine, but I tend to hold people to their word. Don't tell me it'll ship in a week if it's going to take two and a half. I was especially annoyed because everytime I checked in when he missed the date he promised, he'd give me a new date, that he again missed. Besides the fact that he's been very responsive via email, I have almost zero good things to say about the experience thus far.

 

By the sounds of it - they clearly do not stock the parts in house and have some parts but are relying on others to be shipped. The problem for Brian is that he is likely being told - "shipment will be in 3 days" then he tells you what he is told then it doesn't come from his supplier. I think what he probably should do is simply double the lead time and say 6 weeks instead of 3 weeks. That is probably enough to cover himself. I mean if you are the kind of person who is willing to wait 3 weeks - you are probably the kind of person who is willing to wait 6. But if you are told 3 and it comes in 5 you will get pissed off - if he says 6 weeks and it comes in 5 you are impressed!

It's just a bit weird the parts are not in stock - The parts themselves should not be too pricey to stock - unless he has had a lot of sales and ran out of everything and simply doesn't know how long it takes stuff to come in. But if this is the case he needs to tell you all of this. Sometimes you just have to tell people the situation.

I get the sense that Brian is a one man operation where he probably needs some help.

 

He has been nothing but kind and patient with me and he did say he had a lot of orders. Honestly, I would have been fine had he just told me he had a delay and it wouldn't ship for a couple more weeks. What I don't like is feeling like I've been strung along and then he implied that he did it this way cause I was in a rush...no man, I just am excited and you keep getting my hopes up, lol. I would have waited the three weeks without a peep if he hadn't kept making promises. I have faith that everything will be resolved ASAP, it's just been a frustrating process. Thanks for listening to me gripe.

 

Exactly, particularly as there is a caution not to use to much heat on the transformer lugs for fear of de-soldering the bobbins. Part of the reason for direct soldering is that multiple wires are connected to one lug. Still, if I was smarter I would have figured out just use some of my extra lugs I have laying around.

John K.

 

My kit took 8 weeks to get to me. I would never have known the status if I didn't keep contacting ANK. That's just plain poor customer service. Then it arrived with two key missing parts: One resistor (lol DyersEve!) which took another two weeks, and the selector switch, which was never sent, despite repeated requests.

When I got the kit I was deciding between it and the Tubes4HiFi SP-14. Does the sound of the ANK make up for the rest of the hassle? I can't say exactly as I don't have an SP-14 to compare, but if I knew then what I know now I would have gone with the SP-14.

John K.

 

A while back I wanted to build an EL84 based amp and ANK was on my list. You guys are making feel good about my decision to go with Bottlehead. I've built a few Bottlehead kits now and they have always sent complete kits and usually in less time than expected. I once got a kit with a tube that failed within a few weeks; they replaced it quickly.

Oh, and their instructions seem pretty much idiot proof.

 

Benchmark DAC3 B. $1695, 5 year warranty, Stereophile A+.

 

I don't know why you keep pushing a product that I'm not interested in...it was like number 5 on my list. If I was gonna buy something already made, I'd be getting the Border Patrol.

 

Marshall Applewhite was obviously confused. Look at what happened as a result

 

If I decide to buy an external DAC, it will be a Border Patrol. I would use it strictly with the Oppo player.