How much does an amp circuity design affect sound?

[Feanor]

Stanley,

Any update on your Aikido preamp project?

I'm contemplating doing pretty much the same thing and wonder what has come of your efforts.

See Glassware Aikido Rev.A All-in-One board; (one of several designs from them).

[RGA]

Two issues

1) design as it impacts sound quality A Future Without Feedback? | Stereophile.com Cheaper no feedback amp sounds better than far more expensive SS high power amplifiers - even the designers and engineers of said leading high Power SS amps chose the non feedback cheap tube amp

2) The quality of parts as it effects sound quality - well this is easy - you take the same amplifier or speaker design and you use cheap parts in one and expensive parts in the other. Few produced companies have products wherein they let you audition both. Teresonic is a single driver speaker maker - same cabinet but you can audition a few different drivers to hear that the better part sounds better.

My speakers come in a multitude of versions as well - the cabinet is the same - the parts inside are not - and the differences are not subtle. They have 5 preamps - all are designed exactly the same - the difference is the quality of the caps and the quality of the transformers - yield dramatic improvements - an M8 is considerably better than an M6 which is in turn much better than an M3. Indeed one of the most famous amps out there is the Ongaku - they give away the schematics for free so any DIY hobbyist can build one. It won't sound as good as the production model using off the shelf parts at Parts Express. Then again it won't cost nearly as much either.

But parts matter - not what label is on the front of the box Audio Note

[Enochrome]

Stanley,

Any update on your Aikido preamp project?

I'm contemplating doing pretty much the same thing and wonder what has come of your efforts.

See Glassware Aikido Rev.A All-in-One board; (one of several designs from them).

Has anyone heard anything about the Decware Set Kit? I am thinking about one of those. The only reviews I can find are on their website which is moot. I am not sure about the company they got caught rebadging a Gigaworks dac, upgrading a couple of the capacitors and then putting their name on it and spiking the cost by $600. Although their tube amps are popular.