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SET Asylum: REVIEW: Audio Note Kits Kit One 300B Integrated Amplifier (Tube) by BillEpstein

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REVIEW: Audio Note Kits Kit One 300B Integrated Amplifier (Tube)

65.189.210.168


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Model: Kit One 300B
Category: Integrated Amplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price: $1399
Description: Single-ended 300B Stereo integrated amplifier
Manufacturer URL: Audio Note Kits
Model Picture: View

Review by BillEpstein ( A ) on September 29, 2005 at 22:32:58
IP Address: 65.189.210.168
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for the Kit One 300B


Credentials:

I've built 2A3 Paramours, the EL-34 Ella, Welborne's DRD 45 and now the 300B Kit 1. I shouldn't forget to mention the Dynaco SCA-80 back in 1973! I finally know a plate from a cathode and have gotten pretty handy with a soldering iron.

I was never a musician but a very good player of the Trombone and sat in the back of some pretty fair university and community orchestras for a lot of years.Played in pit bands and jazz groups as well.
I attend as many live musical events as I can but don't really need them as a reference after so many years of music- making .

My speaker systems 94dB sensitive + are all capable of being driven by the 300B with ample head-room. Source equipment is run straight in to the amplifier through only a quality Greyhill switch. The Kit 1 with it's Octal 6SN7 (Great Choice!) needs a pre-amp like a fish needs a bicycle. Who said that?

And now, the review

I had been happily listening to the Ella kit for several years until a friend with a very similar speaker system acquired the Yamamoto 45 amplifier. I was taken with the "they are here" presence as well as an ineffable sense of some sort of "boundary" around the music that brought the players even closer.
I now wanted a single-ended amp. I pored over plans for the Rankin Bugle and Baby Ongaku and other schematics. In the end I decided to go with the security of another kit. Having heard and been impressed with several Audio Note products I chose the Kit 1 from Audio Note Kits, Canada. The availability of chrome transformer covers may also have had something to do with it!
My kit, in addition to the chrome, has the TKD pot and Blackgate PSU cap upgrades. This would be my first use of the Blackgates but I was quite familiar with the TKD. (A few years ago I went through the Noble, the Alps Blue and Black, the Alps you get at radio Shack for $5 bucks and the TKD in the Ella amp. The Noble is muffled and dark, the Blue Alps fairly neutral but constricted sounding, the Black is more open but edgy in the treble and the Radio Shack close to the Blue. The TKD stands out as neutral with a wide and deep soundstage) Total price with these upgrades and shipping from Ottowa, $1820.

The kit is a very straighforward build with excellent instructions, pictures, schematics and diagrams. There were a few ambiguities easily cleared up by e-mails from the proprietor. Especially appreciated are the way the sub-assembly boards are laid out with respect to each other. There positioning in the chassis cause the wire dress to be optimal. I would judge that anyone with the curiosity to try the build would succeed.

First impressions revealed that the Kit 1 has that Single-ended magic in spades. Voices and instruments have that "we are here" presence. This is especially important with my speaker system. Horns are often described as "you are there" systems. So much for the conventional wisdom. I also noted that although the mid-range was rich, it wasn't at the expense of the treble. Another conventional wisdom is that the 300B tube is rolled off top and bottom. The top was there, but the bass I was used to from ported JBLPro 2226's was missing. I let the amp break in.

Somewhere around 100+ hours the bass came alive. Not psycho-acoustically but in actual fact. I have several bellwhethers which include the Heifetz/Piatigorsky Soria Brahms Double as well as the Buffalo Springfield Retrospective and BS&T Child Is Father To The Man albums. Especially on the BS&T, Randy Fielder uses his electric bass as a solo instrument.All the changes are right out there in front.

Sometime later the soundstage and image began to morph. I commenced to hear unwelcome anomalies; phase shifts and such. You know, the right hand notes come from here and the left hand from there. Disjointed. Blurred image. Poor center fill. I had been very pleased with the speakers in the corners of the short wall toed in a full 45 degrees to create, with the Ella, a wide and airy, if a bit vague, soundstage. Wide dispersion horns allow for that. This amplifier, however, was having none of it.

I spent an entire morning re-orienting the furniture and equipment so the speakers were on a long wall and the listening position with the opposite wall right behind my head. Toe-in was changed from 45 degrees to less than 10. Now the soundstage and imaging were pinpoint, wide and deep. All the anomalies gone and voices known to be panned to center, in the center. The system became more revealing.

To punctuate this finding, I completed a set of bass reflex towers for a friend at about this same time with a Vifa DX 25 textile dome tweeter. The departure from the compression horn helped round out my conclusions about positioning.

At this point, the 300B tube was anything but melodious and rolled off. In fact, it turned up another issue. Alison Krause' voice didn't sound even close to her live performance. Too bright, edgy and shrill. Upon checking the source it turned out my platter and armboard were no longer level to the top plate. Re-leveling the platter and armboard helped but then lowering the arm pillar an 1/8 inch really dialed in her voice along with everything else. Minor tweaks are clearly heard.

As used in the Kit 1 the 300B is about as revealing as I know the 45 tube to be but quite different in other respects. You can't have a "shoot-out" between the Kit 1 and the DRD45 or Yamamoto because of those differences. Then there's the matter of taste. And the shape of your ears.

There are no absolutes in Audio. The multiplicity of speaker and amplifier and cartridge lines attest to that. We all hear differently. But I say from my experience with good examples of single-ended 45's, 2A3's and EL-34's that they will generally have a more limited appeal than the 300B when done as it is in the Kit 1. While not having the stark contrasts of the 45 or the bass punch of the Parafed 2A3, it is nearly as revealing as either while attaining a level of musicality that equals or surpasses both.

And now a word about tubes. The Kit 1 comes with Chinese (read Valve Art) 300B's, Electro Harmonix 6SN7 pre-driver and 5U4G Rectifier as well as NOS JAN 5687 drivers. I'm an easy mark for the tube-sellers and I substituted OS RCA 'blackplate' 5U4G and 6SN7 plus Tung-Sol 5687's. The Tung Sol 5687's were audibly 'cleaner' sounding than the JAN's but I am hard pressed to hear differences in the other tubes. The Brown Base Valve Arts are first rate and as long as they continue to be quiet and pure, they stay.

I listen to the Kit 1 hour after hour switching from CD to LP as my collection of music dictates. Whether it's Callas and Bergonzi singing 'Tosca', Elvis Costello 'King of America', or 'Boogie with Canned Heat', the system shimmers, wails, emotes and boogies as well as any I have heard.

I'm forced to admit that "my latest is the greatest" whether it's an electronic kit or a speaker system. There's novelty, the pride of accomplishment and finally comfortable familiarity. So far, about 3 months and 200 hours, the Kit 1 continues to delight. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to frequently listen to other amplifiers and speakers. Sometimes I feel these other parts and pieces do this or that better. So far, I'm not even tempted to open the case and 'upgrade' a capacitor.


Product Weakness: Bass not as taught and powerful as push-pull designs(so what else is new?); less sensitive in the highest octave than some other SE tube amps (maybe a good thing)
Product Strengths: Consistent tone and texture from Low "E" to high "C"; dynamic headroom; tunefull bass; life-like presence


Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Kit 1 as tested
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): none
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Ariston RD-11 Superieur/SME3009R/Dynavector 10x5/Hagerman Bugle; Sony SCd 775 with SACDMods
Speakers: own design JBLPro 2226J woofers with Altec 902Bdrivers/Martinelli Woodhorns
Cables/Interconnects: Royal Cable speakers; those blue AR's interconnects
Music Used (Genre/Selections): as noted
Room Size (LxWxH): 28 x 15 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments: LP shelves behind listening position; solid concrete firewall behind speakers
Time Period/Length of Audition: 3 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Monster 1500
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner




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Topic - REVIEW: Audio Note Kits Kit One 300B Integrated Amplifier (Tube) - BillEpstein 22:32:58 09/29/05 ( 19)