Kit1 Completed

[92135011]

Between working at my summer job and goin out, I finally finished Audio Note Kit1
One note about the instructions...they suck! I had to look at pictures and use some of my electrical knowledge to figure out what they wanted to say sometimes.

Anyways, here is a picture of the insides of the the kit.

[92135011]

currently I have some problems with hum.
Anyone know where there might be a problem?

[RGA]

My limited knowledge of hum problems have to do with a cold solder someplace or a grouning problem. Something rarely discussed though with hums is if you have television Cable coming into your room. I had a horrible hum with my Arcam and Sugden amps and I bought a tv cable grounding device from Soundhounds for $10.00 and it got rid of the problem. I learned later that the the cable company had not ground the apartment properly so they coame out to fix it. Had I done that first it would have been free and I sould not need the $10.00 device. Same goes for power. BC Hydro has excellent power and if it doesn't get them to dfix it for free rahter than buying idiotic Monster power bars etc.

Interestingly my tube amp was the only amp that never had a hum problem when the SS amps did??? You could e-mail Paul - i believe they have built a few kits there and the repair guy there, I forget his name, is quite helpful.

[RGA]

Sure looks quite nice inside - did you opt for the silver or black case?

Incidentally I have the AN J stands(Sound Anchors) now as well. I went to SOundhounds recently, obviously with all my reviews, but man ohh man I'm jealous of you. I have not heard the Kit but I did hear the Basic Oto PP and Oto SE and I would give my righ nut for one of those - ok I wouldn't that ould be insane but the they were outstanding. The Oto SE had no noise so I would bet there is somehting you need to go over again. If the Kit is anything like those two my Sugden would be gone. Trouble is I need a Phono stage.

You're scaring me though because you actually know more or less what to look for...I'd be lost trying to troubleshoot.

[92135011]

Im in the process of building my preamp, which comes with an RIAA phono.
It should be pretty good at the end of all things.
The amp is, btw, in a stainless steel chassis and looks great!
Tubes it comes with are ok too - Electroharmonix 300B, 6SN7, 5U4G and nos philips 5687. I also got the Black Gate upgrade and AN PIO caps. The noble pot was kinda cheap, so I took it out and replaced it with a mod, so now it's a real power amp. The Sound has really opened up since the Kit1 was put into service. I'm not sure if its really good or not, but I like the sound so far and its much much better than the old technics I was using. Even my dad, who can never make out differences in sounds, noticed a dramatic difference in the clarity of the music. The tubes also look kinda neat at night ^_^

I fixed the hum a bit...not sure if its back to normal levels.
What is low hum supposed to sound like?

[RGA]

It should not hum at all - With records it might a bit but not with CD. Though I don't think it should hum at all. I'd keep working at it.

Sounds like it's coming along pretty well.

[Geoffcin]

Between working at my summer job and goin out, I finally finished Audio Note Kit1
One note about the instructions...they suck! I had to look at pictures and use some of my electrical knowledge to figure out what they wanted to say sometimes.

Anyways, here is a picture of the insides of the the kit.

With a kit, the instructions are nearly as important as the quality of the components. The fact that your experiencing hum problems leads me to think that the instructions have left something important out, as a good pre should be dead quiet. I'm keenly interested in your problems, as I'm looking to build my first amp, a tubed guitar amp.