by Ron
(Germany)
Love it. I am thinking about a tube integrated for my Zu Essence speakers. Currently using SS Simaudio i-3. Sounds great but Tubes kick ass. Your amp makes your speakers kick and bring out the best in the system. You should post your video on the Zu Audio FB. Others would love to hear the great sound and set up you have.
I would be interested in such a project too, although I have less than 0 experience. I know computers but not yet DIY amp building: Virgin only in Name.
Looking forward to you contact
RC
Ken
Thanks for your comments Ron! Nice to hear from you!
It is nice to hear from another Zu Audio fan! I love my Zu Soul Superfly! It is very transparent and sensitive. Every little things I change in my system are faithfully revealed and reproduced.
You're right that the Zu speakers go well with tube amplifiers! I tried driving Zu speakers with various low power tube amplifiers and they were good matches!
The video taken was quite some time ago where the tube amplifier and Soul Superfly weren't really fully run-in yet. Coupled with careful matching of the components (WE speaker cables + interconnects, mains filter, high resolution DAC & etc), the setup is much much better now...
The 2 tweaks I liked the most are the WE cables and the mains filter as below. The WE cables brought a lot of body and focus to the sound and the mains filter cleansed the system noise and harshness!
Tips and tricks.
WE Cables.
DIY tube amp is not very difficult actually. It is quite simple especially for minimalist single ended triode configuration. What tube do you have in mind?
Here are a few projects you can refer too. My current favorite are the 10, 10Y or 801A. Maybe you can give that a try. Else, for beginners, maybe the 2A3 would be an easier tube to begin with. You can hardly go wrong with a 2A3 tube.
DIY Tube Amplifier.
You can contact me via this page:
Contact Me.
Ken