Audio Note Kit DAC 2.1 Build

I miss the Pioneer. Had some great times there with a few of the crew from Caribou Ranch.

I'll never miss those cold 100 mph winds coming off Eldora

 

It is very fortunate that you are sharing this information here and you have gotten so many informative replies.

I will never buy a ANKit, based upon this thread and my own amp!

 

Well, lets take a look at this.

WBT-0820 Silver Solder 250 grams



So let's see, we get a just over a half of a pound of this precious solder for ONLY (drum roll please) Price: $173.00, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!

On Amazon Prime. A 1-pound spool of 60/40 Rosin core solder, $22.99.

HGMZZQ 60/40 Tin Lead Solder Wire with Rosin for Electrical Soldering 0.039inch (1.0mm-1lb)



And... The Winner Is AMAZON!

 

This is my go to. One pound, $25. I'm not sure why I prefer the 63/37. It just feels better when soldering, for some reason.

 

Well I guess that’s why mine didn’t work either. I just assumed they sent me the correct tube. Silly me.

John K

 

Brian indeed said it was the wrong tube and blamed it on a new guy packing the kits...but it sounds like this isn't a new problem.

 

I'm sure that they have many more exotic solder's out there today. The last time I built a kit was forty years ago, when I built my computer.

I bought a soldering pencil some basic soldering tools and some 60/40 solder, what ever they had at Radio Shack back in 2013, so that I could have a basic soldering station on hand, in case that I needed to solder / un-solder something or other.

The only thing I know about solder is there is acid core solder which plumber's use and 60/40 rosin core. Since I would buy solder in a store that sold some kind of electronic's, they would always have rosin core solder.

Any solder that I have ever used was just solder. I don't know anything different?

I'm sure that it is all good. As long as it is not more than $25/pound. Any one would work for me. I did notice all of the different kinds of solder that they have on Amazon today.

 

There's just something to the specific flux in the Kester. I had used similar RadioShack branded stuff in the past and even once spent big bucks on a small roll of the Cardas Quad for a phono pre mod. The Kester is cheap and works better than anything else I've tried. I even like the way the flux smells, though I doubt my lungs feel the same way, lol. The first review on that Amazon page is hilarious and speaks of this strange attraction to the smell.

 

Works for me, but I hope that I won't be seeing more solder in my future. I think that I will be hanging up my soldering iron, along with my spurs.

 

My post was not for comparing price or touting any type of solder. Was only making the point that no one is going to use silver solder (brazing alloy) to solder with as you suggested, and the associated high melt point that it brings.

 

OK, I'm fine with that but the "gentle" low heating silver solder that you have posted is $173 for a little over 8 oz. The solder that I was making a comparison to was just a 60/40 rosin core 1-lb. spool of solder that I also selected at random off of an Amazon listing. I am also not endorsing any brand of solder, but I am making a price comparison.

So, 500-grams works out to be 17.9 oz., times 16 oz. = $285.7 per-pound / $22.99

= $12.4 times as much for this "gourmet" solder product. Not being familiar with this product, I will refrain from singing it any praises that might be due it for its silver content and low melting point.

Noting that it is described as:

WBT SILVER SOLDER - LEAD BASED
Highest quality solder with 4% fine silver content. (which accounts for $11.43 of the total price)
Low melting temperature of 180° C (356° F).

I will stick to the Amazon product or spend the additional 12.6 cents per-ounce, for the OP's solder.

If the OP is pleased with it, than that's good enough for me!

 

One step closer!

 

Saw this post and thought something looked familiar; that "Kester" solder is the same product Musical Concepts includes as part of their kits.

 

Line board is officially finished. I'm simply not patient enough to make my leads from those film caps look as pretty as they show in the professional photos, lol. I'm sticking with my "just get the job done" mantra. All solder joints are shiny little mountains, and that's what counts!

 

Well at least folks who do these kits will have some new found respect for the finished products using the much tougher to work with silver solder and to be as neat and tidy as they were. Watching the AVshowrooms series of the factory tour and seeing how long it takes to make one amplifier I can appreciate why some of the prices get way up there.

 

That is what counts!

 

Naah. Not at all.

I've been shown there there is "precious metal" solder that is easy enough to work with, if that is the particular grade of silver solder that AN uses. And, for the prices they charge and the quality of their gear, I would expect no less.

As to these folks doing these kits and equating it to some kind of level of respect for the company that manufactured them, I think you have that backwards.

I have very little respect when I read about their overall level of incompetence in not providing the correct parts, nor clear and concise instructions.

For example, take a look at this board the OP has just completed. There is nothing remarkable about it. When I say that, I am not speaking from a functional point of view, nor as a comment on the OP's ability to build it.

From a kit builder's stand point, it is approximately a 4" x 4" PC board with appears to be about 18 parts on it. So...



The same thing with this board, which is mostly un-populated at this stage of assembly. You look at the directions to find what components you need to stick in the holes, locate that component and stick it in the holes, solder it in place and trim the leads. This is not rocket science, it is just a matter of following the directions.

The soldering pencil has no idea what component is on the other end of the wire that is being soldered to the PC board.



Boards get connected together with wiring harnesses. As do the input and output connections on the case and any switches that may be present.

This is (or should not be) any different than any other electronic's "kit" that has ever been manufactured.

Consider that the OP is not a professional who assembles electronic component's, nor is he an avid kit builder. He built this kit seeing the box of parts and the instruction manual for the first time. He did not have a finished kit next to hip to look over for guidance. He managed all of this from the begining to end extirely on his own, without outside help, that he would have available to him in a industrial setting.

If the OP built ten of these kits, by that time, he could be doing it in his sleep.

At the manufacturer's level, they should have professionals who do this kind of thing for a living.

I see nothing challenging about it at all and have no particular degree of empathy of the manufacturer in this regard.

Just my opinion. Not slamming AN or ANK (as I am an owner of an assembled L4 kit amplifier). Just say'in this is no big deal.

ANK needs to get their act together! That's All!

Edit: Nice Photos and nice build to the OP.

 

I think @Richard Austen was referring to the actual Audio Note factory, which I believe has next to zero affiliation with ANK. In the case of AN, you're also paying for years of knowledge and research and, I'm sure, an insanely meticulous build with way better components than were included in my kit. I'm pretty sure they even make their own wires in house. I DO have a new found appreciation for it. You have to remember that you're also paying these builders for their TIME and I'm sure they are well compensated, considering nothing is built with cheap labor in a third world country. Plus there's other people who need to be paid in that setting (testers, account managers, team leaders, etc)

Yes, I'm sure I could build one of these in my sleep if I built five in a row, that's true, but would it be an Audio Note product? Would it sound as good? Nope, I highly doubt it.

 

You are getting a high quality NOS DAC that would be far more costly if bought as an Audio Note, with some parts upgrades over the standard kit. Yeah, the incorrect parts are a PITA and you've struggled a bit, even though I gather you have some skills in this area, but you'll wind up with a nice unit for relatively little money.
I don't condemn the company for lousy instructions or the mishmash of parts, though agree they could do better. The owner (Brian?) seems to have worked with you to quickly provide what you need. So, I read this as a cautionary thread, perhaps one that might discourage the faint of heart, but not something that would rule out buying one of these kits by a stoic kit builder. Me- I'd go factory build, simply because I wouldn't want to go through the torture of it with my half-azzed skills (last kit I built was a Dyna ST-70 back in the day), but the real question to me will be, what does the OP think after he has it done and fired it up? Will he say it was worth it?

 

I sure hope so

 

My post was clearly not addressing anything to do with the design and engineering, knowledge and research.

I'm also sure, that if you had the same parts from AN that and that you built five in a row, that it would sound exactly the same, as if they had built it themselves.

Design, engineering, quality parts are one thing. I do give credit for professional assembly, but let's call it like it is.

There is no mythical Audio Note "voodoo" in putting something like this together.

There are companies like Rogue and Decware (I hove multiple products from both of them) that hand assemble their products in the U.S.A and I am willing to bet that their build qualities are every bit as good as those that AN builds.

I also have two Line Magnetic products that are built is Asia, where labor is less expensive. But they are both hand assembled with quality skilled labor that I am assured is P2P wiring that is up to the same quality standard's that An is. And I would also tend to believe, that even of the pay scale in China is less than the pay scale in England, that their employees are also properly compensated for their efforts.

Going back to the days when everything was tubes and people did work in American factories and hand build world class quality products by P2P wiring, these people had just a much skill and experience as anyone who assembles things at AN.

Here is a Fisher, one of the 500 series that were built during the early to mid 60's in America, by hand. This particular one is a 500B.

Notice the fine furniture grade case. As a note, President John F. Kennedy has a Fisher receiver in the oval office of the White House, during his tenure.



With the cover off.



This is the underside of this unit. I don't think that you (or I) would want to be building this as a kit. Not only because of the difficulty in all of the intricate hand wiring involved, but all of the tedious alignments and adjustments needed to get it working properly after it was assembled.



B.T.W... I own the 500C version of this receiver and it was lovingly restored by one of our members. I doubt that it, or any other quality piece of American Gear was assembled, using "silver" solder, nor do I expect that it was utilized during the restoration process.

Please Note: I do realize that ANK is an American owned and operated company that is separate from AN in England.

 

I think ANK is a Canadian company

 

Indeed. Technically still America though, lol.

 

For future reference, I find that PC board stuffing goes much better if you start with the smallest parts and work your way up from there. That way you can turn the board upside down and solder them all at once, then go to the next bigger sized parts and repeat.

 

Well that's just common sense (smaller components first) and I usually populate a whole board at once if I'm working on something like a motherboard...however, due to the nature of this product, I prefer to do one component at a time, solder, and double check my work. I'd rather do it once and do it right than have to go back and find something I messed up later on.