Tubes Asylum: REVIEW: Dynakit St-35 Amplifier (Tube) by TAZSMONN

Model:	St-35
Category:	Amplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price:	$450.00
Description:	17.5w stereo tube amp, EL84 tubes, UL mode
Manufacturer URL:	Dynakit
Model Picture:	View

Review by Tazsmonn on December 25, 2006 at 17:50:16
IP Address: 12.73.122.119

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I had wanted an EL84 amp sence the mid 90's. In fact I had bought a Sca35 to rebuild, more on this later. I had done much reseach on the different amps old and new and the St-35 sparked a lot of interest for me. It has been said that this one of the best EL84 amps ever desighed. So off to E-bay. Not such a great idea. Overpriced 40 year old amps I do not have a lot of faith in. Then at about that time someone posted the link to dynakit and said the company had been restarted. I bought the St-35 amp kit, put about 16 hours into building it. (ok I'm slow!) Turned it on and it worked, hurray for my double checking everything!
Sound, Hi eff speakers. Nice and quite enjoyable, balance from bass to treble very good but no ultralow bass, speakers fault. Also rather clear sound. I was happy with buying the amp now! I had also changed out CD players and was using the Adcom. The positive effect was very noticable, the amp is very neutral sounding. Never ran out of power or had it clip.
Sound, Hi def speakers/seperate subwoofer. These give a very good acid test for stereo imaging, front to back depth, and subtle details. This amp is a 9 out of 10!!! Granted I had to put hours into building it, but you just do not get this kind of sound at this price.
Sound, subwoofer. Ok putting a 17.5w per channel amp on a dual voice coil 10" sub in a bass reflex cabinate and thinking it will actually work, pretty much sounds like something a guy named Tazsmonn with too much vodka in him would do. Not only did it work fine and do a suitable job at it at a normal listening level. Sound was very tight yet smooth throught the bass range and more importantly to me it does do very deep bass. Going much above normal listening level it clipped, very politely.
I have listened to the St-35 for several hundred hours in the three different set ups and like it in all three. Anoughter point often missed with low power tube amps is much smaller waste heat, very important in the summer months. I would also sugest getting the cage,YOU KNOW WHY!

Product Weakness: No one bought it for me. Colors are not that great. You need to get very closly matched power tubes because of the simply bias.
Product Strengths: Good sound a "9", small,and very good price for what you get!

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	St-35
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	SAS Audio Labs 10A
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Adcom GCD 750
Speakers:	Hi Eff, Hi Def.. see review
Cables/Interconnects:	many copper ones
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Jazz,Punk,Rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	16 x 12 x 6.5
Room Comments/Treatments:	The room is rather neutral in sound
Time Period/Length of Audition:	6 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	tripplett 2400
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	No one bought it for me. Colors are not that great. You need to get very closly matched power tubes because of the simply bias.
Product Strengths:	Good sound a "9", small,and very good price for what you get!