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Nobsound 6N8P+6P3P

primosounds said:
You do realize that the factories are probably run by the government and so they can just offer these items with no concern for customer service.
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These small factories are not run by the Chinese Government. They have much bigger fish to fry. These companies and factories are run by, in almost every case, small entrepreneurs. I should know, I live and work in Hong Kong and get to interact with a wide range of people from all walks of life in, mainly, South China and Shanghai.

The kits are made for local consumption, and have, with the internationalisation of commerce, appeared on the wider market. I think this is very important to take into consideration. The support from them is local, often groups of enthusiasts. The translations of things that we/you in the west are using are often done via software which is imperfect. Often amusingly so. Also, Douk, Nobsound, GD, Dinwen or any of the others that sell them are not the ones that make them. They are usually bought in and then onsold. They are often, like companies everywhere, trying to do this in a cost effective way. They make decisions. They make changes. They have a different culture around this.

One guy I know who works for a large international supply chain company likens Chinese businesses now to the USA in the early 20thC. There were/are less rules and controls over how things were/are done.

And going back to the translation/language barrier, I am often involved with translating English to Chinese and Chinese into English for art related matters. I'm the person at the English end doing the polishing. You can end up having a 30 minute discussion over the use of a couple of words. Electronics and circuits should be easier, but I assume not. I once helped out on something camera related, it was around the use of a simple lens adaptor, it was headache inducing.

To the people having issues with the kits pm me, I might be able to help via a couple of local friends. No promises, but will try.
 
Yea, support my local craftsmen...right, my neighborhood amp kit supplier

It would be more helpful if you had a relevant comment, rather than expect me to pay thousands instead of what should be a clever little project.

primosounds said:
It would be more helpful if you all supported your local craftsmen and small businesses instead of playing russian roulette with these amps.
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When you buy a kit, you expect to build it, not engineer it.

I do not have unreasonable expectations, of seeing a schematic here and thinking it might be correct, it is exactly the same kit

Unfortunately I did not realize the person who posted the translated document had not actually built the kit.

I have updated the schematic for cap values, but now most of the resistors in the kit are random values and it is a struggle to decide whether I should use the values in the schematic since it was not as vetted as I had thought
 
primosounds said:
It would be more helpful if you all supported your local craftsmen and small businesses instead of playing russian roulette with these amps.
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Pray tell, what local craftsman sells tube amp kits at this price point?
Russian roulette? Would you kindly link the thread where someone burned down their house, or wound up in an ambulance, or even threw it out in frustration?

This, and most other forums exists to HELP.

Just ‘sayin.
 
It is false economy. All the stuff you need to do to get the amp up and running. Who likes doing that? If you are upset because you got taken too, i am sorry to hear that.
 
Seen that happen to a few tube guitar amps, kind of exciting in a "s&$t I might die" sort of way. Some Vox amps were famous for it from memory. Maybe the people who wired them once worked at Lucas ...
 
schem.jpg kit_edited-1.jpg Welp, mine came today. That is the sum total of instructions. Hopefully with the other stuff floating around the internet I'll be able to throw this erector set together!
 
primosounds said:
It is false economy. All the stuff you need to do to get the amp up and running. Who likes doing that? If you are upset because you got taken too, i am sorry to hear that.
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Not upset at all by your comments. Where else are you going to get a complete kit for less than $200 delivered? Looks fairly complete to me, I've not inventoried it yet, but so far so good.
 
Keep us posted as you build Tubby. We'll try and help along the way. I have to admit, that's a lot of parts for $200.
 
To ground or not to ground....?

The schematic, and other pictures of the build show no ground getting ties to the IEC plug. For the most part, this is going to be driven by a cell phone or computer. Whatdaya think?

The kit so far is missing the point to point terminal strips. I can go get those easy enough. Also the rectifier is a 5U4C, not what they depicted in the schematic. Prolly alright, but I like the bigger bottle look of what was in the ad.
 
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That rectifier tube should be okay. There is a similar Russian equivalent which is indirectly heated, the 5U4M. Same pinouts.

You need to attach all the ground connections, including the iec ground, to a busbar, which is then only connected at the input, as on the schematic. The only ground connection to the chassis is made via the volume control pot at the signal input.

(Non-working link removed.)
 
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Dandy said:
That rectifier tube should be okay. There is a similar Russian equivalent which is indirectly heated, the 5U4M. Same pinouts.

You need to attach all the ground connections, including the iec ground, to a busbar, which is then only connected at the input, as on the schematic. Check the photo of this build to see the busbar. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eLOxshddcliIozcab-I22yNm3IhGWbUE?usp=sharing

The only ground connection to the chassis is made via the volume control pot at the signal input.
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I agree, and that follows best practice- but in many on the net that I have seen, they did not ground the chassis to earth and the bus seems to be grounded in many places (supports) in the photos. In the build from this guy who, IIRC is connected to the kit maybe? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_k47LjHySDs_LD-By1eDNZwIilLA-z4T/view

If you notice in the pics, he left the IEC ground unconnected. I suppose I will do it as you suggest and if I have issues just snip it....
 
You might try using a switch on the IEC socket ground? I have a phono preamp with one. Its quieter with the ground switched off. I'm guessing the switch on the ground was installed in case of ground loop problems.
 
terminal_edited-2.jpg
Lavane said:
You might try using a switch on the IEC socket ground? I have a phono preamp with one. Its quieter with the ground switched off. I'm guessing the switch on the ground was installed in case of ground loop problems.
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I like that. The thin stainless chassis scares me to drill in it though. Here is what I have so far on this erector set. I added terminal strips, I want to keep it as neat and tidy as possible. View attachment 1259524
 
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