Thanks everyone for the interest. My initial impressions are that I like it very much. Sound is very detailed, with no unnecessary background noise. It doesn't add anything to or take anything away from the music. More details to follow. I am new to this hobby and not great at describing sounds so I will just do my best.
The kit arrived in a well packed box. Everything was bagged and labeled in a way that made it easy to follow the directions. The directions are very well written and easy to follow. The directions also contain just the right amount of extra details (advice and best practices). I do have experience soldering (less than a week in Navy "A" School back in 1994) but I think anyone with a decent soldering iron should be fine. Very rarely the solder runs are close together and could be connected with too much solder (bridges). I think I took a week to put the kit together, but I could have shaved a few days off that easily. I would guess I spent 25 - 30 hours in total.
As soon as I was finished I
set it up in my small office. That room is already packed with speakers and equipment. The room is primarily used for listening to music and watching TV. I have a mix of old and new in there with a a Marantz AVR and a pix of Polk SDAs and Monitors making up a 5.1 with an SVS sub. I used an Adcom 555 to drive the front L/R channels so it sounds okay for music. I added this 2 channel pre connected to a Denon CD player and a Technics SL1710 record player. I pulled the matching amplifier (GT-102, that I built a while ago) and some Polk Audio R200 speakers out of my daughters room and hooked everything up. I like what I was hearing and because I still had everything hooked up to my normal set up in there I was easily able to A/B the two systems. This set up was clearly temporary so it did not last very long. I left the pre playing quietly for a day or two.
After a few days connected to a pair of bookshelf speakers
I moved the pre down to my 2 channel rig in the living room. This preamp would be displacing an Anthem PRE 1 that I have really enjoyed for a number of years. The living room 2 Channel consists of Polk Audio SDA SRS 2.3tl driven by a Parasound HCA-1500a. Sources are a Marantz ND8006, Sony UBP-X800 and a Technics SL-Q2. The Anthem preamp does not have a phono pre so I have been using a Vincent PHO-8. I didn't really expect a night and day difference and to my eats everything sounded great before the switch.
Something that I didn't really appreciate until this moment was this new preamp has
two identical, full range, RCA outputs. These outputs are selectable on the front panel or remote. I pulled a pair of Zu Audio speakers out of another room and added them to the mix with the Akitika amplifier providing them power. I did this because I wanted to see how the two Akitika products played together and I assumed 50 wpc would not be enough for the large Polk Audio SDAs. The room is narrow from the listening position to speakers, but long in the other direction. It is probably 25 x 14 with opening on both ends to the rest of the downstairs. In my experience the SDAs fill this space with music really well. The Zu Audio speakers struggled to fill the room, but they were able to bring a lot out of the music.
Details were better than ever and with the Akitika gear driving really efficient simple speakers I was finally starting to hear some of the other qualities that I have been reading about. A sense of air around the music. A more lifelike presentation. Everything was sounding great, smiling ear to ear. Switching back to the SDAs (really convenient with a button on the remote) I was still hearing more detail and clarity than the Anthem provided. I have done all the recommended mods to the SDAs (details linked below) so I am fairly confident that they are performing as good as new or likely even better. At this point the Zu Audio speakers are just in the way and they have served their purpose so they went back to their normal spot in my wife's sitting room.
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...ka-my-last-set-of-vintage-polks-maybe.931865/
For now this preamp has found a permanent home in my living room.
I would describe the sound as clear and uncolored. I feel like I am hearing exactly what the sound engineer intended to a greater degree than I was before. The sound is engaging and fun to listen to. There is a degree of detail that was not present before. I find myself listening to some of my favorite songs discovering new sounds that I had not heard before.
So far I have not encountered a situation where this increased detail exposed a bad recording, but I imagine that will happen at some point. When it does this preamp has
tone controls that should allow some relief. I have experimented with the tone controls a little bit and they seem very well integrated. They allow me to add or remove a bit of highs or lows without being overpowering as is frequently the case. I did not expect them to really be usable (as in the past that has been my experience with tone controls), but I was wrong. They do their job without overpowering the music. I also like the fact that they can be removed from the circuit via a button on the front panel or remote.
I will start another thread for the
phono preamp as I think it deserves its own discussion. When I do I will link it here, but it is great also. I am still experimenting with the settings but right out of the box it sounds great!
Edit: done
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/akitika-phono-preamplifier-build.1018163/
Thanks for reading. I would be happy to answer any question I can. I would highly encourage anyone who is interested to build this kit. The build process was easy and fun. I am more than pleased with the end results. It is hard to imagine getting a better product for less money.
Some pictures:
GT-102 information:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...or-a-first-time-builder.964162/#post-14947925
