Amplifier Build Kits - Any Good?

[Mylesofsmyles]

I have always been a fan of custom assembling, or simply assembling, something, rather than purchasing it pre-fab. Thus, it came no surprise to me that I desired building my next stereo/home-theatre unit, rather than purchase it. A while back, I was turned onto a set of Parts Express, Dayton loudspeakers with silk-dome tweeters. The audio offered great range and sounded clean and crisp. Best of all, it came in a build it yourself kit!

I intend to opt for the higher-end, Dayton Euro loudspeaker kit, with higher quality woofers and tweeters. In conjunction with my DIY speaker kit, I have been hoping to build my new pre and power amps. Does anyone have any suggestions for quality amplifier kits? Like the rest of the audiophile world, I have always been a fan of McIntosh components. While I don't expect to get the same quality from a kit, and I don't want to spend nearly as much as for a McIntosh, what can I get in kit form that would be a "strong" second? If it helps any, I need a power amp, tube or electronic, that will output 100+ watts x 2+ channels.

 

[Swerd]

...A while back, I was turned onto a set of Parts Express, Dayton loudspeakers with silk-dome tweeters. The audio offered great range and sounded clean and crisp. Best of all, it came in a build it yourself kit!

I intend to opt for the higher-end, Dayton Euro loudspeaker kit, with higher quality woofers and tweeters. In conjunction with my DIY speaker kit, I have been hoping to build my new pre and power amps. Does anyone have any suggestions for quality amplifier kits? Like the rest of the audiophile world, I have always been a fan of McIntosh components. While I don't expect to get the same quality from a kit, and I don't want to spend nearly as much as for a McIntosh, what can I get in kit form that would be a "strong" second? If it helps any, I need a power amp, tube or electronic, that will output 100+ watts x 2+ channels.

I don't know about kit amps, so I can't help you there. Someone here did build some amps in the past, I think it may have been Rob Babcock. Search the DIY Corner for past threads by him. You might also look at http://www.diyaudio.com/ where there are several forums that deal with amp building.

Which PE speaker kit did you build and why do you want to replace it now? The Dayton Euro drivers have never sold well, probably because they're not very good. I haven't heard them, but I know of others who were disappointed by them. PE has discontinued both of the Euro drivers, and whatever they have left are selling as kits. For $446 a pair, you can probably do a lot better. What type of speaker are you thinking about?

 

[Mylesofsmyles]

In regards to the speakers; I have never owned a set of PE loudspeakers, a friend of mine has. He had a set of the basic, $100 DIY set; they sounded awesome! While I have not heard the new Euro series speakers, from what I have read, I woul expect them to outperform the basic kit. I am quite confident I will purchase the Euro set!

For the amps, I found this company...http://www.audionotekits.com/index.html. So far, they are the only amplifier kit company I can find however, I would imagine there are more. The Audio Note Kits also seem expensive; I would like something more affordible. Again, I want something of quality and if money savings is an option, I would like to opt for that too!

 

[Swerd]

In regards to the speakers; I have never owned a set of PE loudspeakers, a friend of mine has. He had a set of the basic, $100 DIY set; they sounded awesome! While I have not heard the new Euro series speakers, from what I have read, I woul expect them to outperform the basic kit. I am quite confident I will purchase the Euro set!

The basic DIY kit that PE sells is called the BR-1, about $150 a pair. It is considered a pretty good speaker, at a very low price.

If you are considering the Euro kit at triple the price, you might look at this design. It is also a small 2-way made with PE's newer RS series drivers that are very low in distortion. These new RS drivers were one of the reasons why PE has dropped the Euro driver. The Euros cost more and weren't as good.

This is not a kit. You will have to assemble the crossover yourself, but that isn't very hard to learn. You can buy premade cabinets from PE (same as in their true kits). You will have to make the cut outs to mount the drivers. The best way to do that is with a router and a circle cutting jig. If you're really interested, I could help you with that .

For the amps, I found this company...http://www.audionotekits.com/index.html. So far, they are the only amplifier kit company I can find however, I would imagine there are more. The Audio Note Kits also seem expensive; I would like something more affordible. Again, I want something of quality and if money savings is an option, I would like to opt for that too!

I've heard of these amp kits http://www.aksaonline.com/index.html, but I don't know anything else about them good or bad. They also seem expensive. Keep searching and good luck.

 

[Mylesofsmyles]

Good Stuff!!!

I had no idea the Euro Series was so terrible; if you say the Encore is better, I don't mind building a set of them. For the crossover, even in the PE kits, one has to build the crossover however, PE also sells premade crossovers. I am in no position to start building crossovers; I will buy a readymade one.

I found a few other amp kits that are far less expensive however, few of them seem to have a bass & treble knob. I suppose I will have to keep searching.

 

[Swerd]

Good Stuff!!!

I had no idea the Euro Series was so terrible; if you say the Encore is better, I don't mind building a set of them. For the crossover, even in the PE kits, one has to build the crossover however, PE also sells premade crossovers. I am in no position to start building crossovers; I will buy a readymade one.

Please don't get me wrong. I haven't heard the Euro kit. I'm only saying it costs nearly $450 a pair and it never got accepted with enthusiasm from DIYers. In contrast the BR-1 kit is very popular, and not just because it costs so little. The same is true for the many DIY designs for the RS drivers. Some of those designs cost a lot more than the Euros. Trust me, I'm not trying to sell you a bill of goods, I only think that the Encore will certainly be better than the BR-1 and it costs about $360 for the sealed version and about $385 for the vented version.

Do not make the mistake of trying to use a premade crossover. It will be a very poor substitute for the custom designed crossover. Custom designed crossovers are what make DIY speakers sound so good.

I had guessed if you were ready to take on building an amplifier kit, that you could easily handle a crossover. Am I wrong on that? If you do want to eventually build an amplifier, you will have to know how to assemble and solder electrical circuit boards. Speaker crossover boards would be a good place to start learning that.

Madisound also sells kits that include printed circuit boards for the crossovers like PE does with its kits. Have a look at their stuff. They sell a variety of kits in a wide range of prices. One kit that you might like is the Vifa Studio Kit for $495 with cabinets.

 

[Mylesofsmyles]

Why is it that premade crossovers are bad? Is it the specific crossover points, or something else? I know that with a few PE/Dayton premade crossovers, the buyer can select the crossover point of his preference.

 

[Swerd]

Why is it that premade crossovers are bad? Is it the specific crossover points, or something else? I know that with a few PE/Dayton premade crossovers, the buyer can select the crossover point of his preference.

Premade crossovers may work OK only if you carefully select a woofer and tweeter combination that happen to work best at the crossover frequency of the premade board. Usually that never happens. If it does work, it is by sheer luck.

Crossovers do a lot more than select a crossover frequency. You can adjust the slope of the crossover, you can add extra filtering to supress unwanted noise that woofers often make above their usefull range, you can adjust the bass response depending on how close or far you place your speakers from the wall behind them, and you can smooth out some roughness in a tweeter or woofers response. Most important, you can make sure that the speaker's response across the all important midrange is as smooth as possible. You'd be surprised at how many commercially made speakers fail to get this right.

You can do all this slowly by trial and error, or use computer aided design software that speeds up the trial and error. Or even better, follow a recipe from someone else who has the design software.

Read these two articles to get a better idea of what is involved:

http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/Articles/xover article/xpointmain.htm

http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/Articles/constxo/xoconst.htm

If you are serious about learning more and trying to build a kit, I want to encourage you as much as possible. Send me a PM with your email address and we can discuss this more offline. I was once a rookie and others helped me out quite a bit. I'll be glad to do that for you.

 

[Mylesofsmyles]

I am not opposed to attempting to build a crossover, if infact it will be beneficial. My simple, and nieve, expectation was simply that if PE/Dayton offers all the components to make a correct crossover for their BR, Euro and Encore speaker kit, the PE/Dayton crossovers can't be far off. Now I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time however, I figured that if I determine the crossover specs and components in the PE/Dayton speaker kits, I could simply purchase the corrisponding PE/Dayton ready-made crossover.

 

[billnchristy]

Ever thought of doing a single driver fullrange?

No crossover to worry about whatsoever which makes it an easy build and there really is nothing like that single driver sound.

I have some 3" tang bands (the ones on sale for 8.88 at PE) and a pair of 4" Jordan JX92S ($390 a pair) and they are absolutely luscious.

As for amps have you checked:

http://www.41hz.com/

They sell tri path kits pretty cheap...I assume you know how to solder and all that jive?

Dont forget the very cheap tube amp kits places such as tube depot sell as well:
http://www.tubedepot.com/diy-k12m.html

 

[Swerd]

My simple, and nieve, expectation was simply that if PE/Dayton offers all the components to make a correct crossover for their BR, Euro and Encore speaker kit, the PE/Dayton crossovers can't be far off. Now I could be wrong...

That is a common assumption, but, yes it is wrong.

Every different woofer-tweeter combination can require a different crossover. In fact, changing the cabinet front panel dimensions or driver mounting locations on it can audibly affect performance and should be reflected in the crossover design. Many rookie DIY builders have ignored that and have been disappointed with their results.

I've already given you plenty to read, but I think you should download and read PE's BR-1 kit assembly directions. It should give you a good idea of what building that kit (or most others) involves and may answer many of your questions.