This came as a complete surprise. I've had one of those for about 9 months now. It replaced a pair of Quicksilver Mini-Mites and a pre-amp designed and built by Patrick Turner in Canberra. I actually has it assembled for me. A few Australian companies will do it. Mine was done by RF Waves in Perth and I am sure anyone interested can track them down. They offered it to me with any tube type. I wanted and I picked EL34s. I very soon changed those around (currently Mullards) although I think there is a degree of system matching involved. I use mine simply as a speaker amp and have been hugely impressed by it. It currently drives a pair of speakers made by Adelaide Speakers in... surprise... Adelaide. Although I am not much of a headphone person, I watch every video you make and think your approach is very balanced and transparent. Keep up the good work.
This is really terrific. Thank you for taking on this project and producing a wonderful insight into DIY projects. A special thanks for taking the time, and making the effort, to turn what appears to be a modest reward into an extraordinary one. I recently built the Nelson Pass Amp Camp Amp, which I loved doing (and sounds great, btw, but alas no headphone amp), so this completely peaks my interest to continue down this path of understanding what's really going on under the hood of good sound. Very much look forward to watching the second episode and diving into another project in the near future. Well done!!!
Glad you liked it and, yes, there is definitely room to make a few changes. Not as much space for things like different volume pots/attenuators like in the Bottlehead S.E.X., but easy to change caps and resistors plus roll SO many tubes!
Great review. I love the TU8200. Built one many years ago and is used daily. Even listening to your reviews on it now. They are fantastic amps, a really fantastic kit to build too. I would love to build another.
Loved the video. Lots of great info. I've built two of Elekit's preamps as well as their push pull power amp for us passive speaker guys. I'm definitely on my way to absorb part 2. I will admit I'm still trying to take in the concept of "enjoying" point to point wiring versus wiring printed circuit boards but that's what makes the world interesting. I guess the middle ground would be designing or at least making your own PCBas and then sourcing parts and wiring up. I admire those that take it on. Great content. Thanks.
Glad you liked the content! I'd love to do true DIY builds (i.e. design and all) too, but spare time is against me right now. Hope you enjoy Part 2 and some more builds in the future 🙂🙂
This is an epic review. Thank you! I also have Elekit TU-8200R but used it mostly as a speaker amp. When i sold my speakers i put it back in box and forgot all about it but you inspired me to dig it out again lol. As a speaker amp i liked it with 6L6 and EL34 tubes but i also tried EH KT90. Very nice dynamic tubes but the amp is getting a good deal hotter with those. With my Philips Fidelio X2 headphones i didn't notice any noise. Looking forward to the second part of your video.
Hi Calaf, I agree with you about the tube choices. The stock output for your headphones wouldn't create noise (it's a very quiet output), but it will likely be altering the sound signature for better or worse.
Great video, Lachlan. Having just taken the plunge into proper headphones and amp/dac combo, this looks like a good next project. I’ve fitted Elna Silmic II caps to loads of gear, always to great effect. Looking forward to part 2 😀
Great and very helpful video. Thank you! I cant wait to see teh second part so I can upgrade my Elekit. I have a pair of Focal Clear heaphones and I would love to make the modifications so I can get more out of the Elekit.
WOW cant believe i found this video, your the best headphone reviewer on youtube. I just found out about this amp and i want to build it. I have HD 6xx so the mod may not be in order ? but i think i would still do it. I will be running speakers also. So with the mod do you thiink this beats the Xduoo TA 26 ?, thanks for all your input. One other thing why do you not have 50k people following you on this channel, you should have that very easy.
Thank you! The 8200R smashes the TA-26 (as it should for the money) and will be great for you with no mods required. Do get the Lundahl output transformers if you can though as they make a significant difference.
Another great review, from Passion For Sound, both part 1 and part 2, of this lovely kit. The photography is excellent, and very well presented. Perhaps too well, as I now have one on the way this week, lol. It's my first tube amp., however, I bought an assembled kit, as it was cheaper for me to buy a "gently used" one than a new kit, but the assembly video was invaluable nonetheless. I have a newbie question that is likely obvious to those experienced in using tube amps for headphone use, but I would certainly appreciate any feedback to my burning question: "Can I safely use the Elekit 8200 for headphone use, (I intend to use my Sennheiser HD 650) without having any speakers connected?" I intend to use the 8200 for headphone use primarily, but as this is a tube amp, all the information I've been able to find indicates that it must have speakers connected to it at all times, or some kind of dummy load, to avoid damaging it. I realize that with the headphones plugged in, it cuts out the speaker section, and certainly I would have to be sure to have the headphones securely plugged in at all times when it is powered on. But will it be ok with just the headphones connected? If anyone can provide any information to solve this question, I will be eternally grateful!
Congrats on the new amp! If you're going to always have the headphones connected, you will have no issues at all because that is creating a load for the system. If you're particularly concerned, you could go to an electronics hobby/parts shop and buy some resistors (around 8 or 16 ohm would be fine) to connect between each of the speaker outputs. In other words, run one resistor between the black and red on the right channel, and another resistor between the black and red on the left channel. 🙂
@@PassionforSound Thank-you very much for the reply, and the great answer to my question! I received the Elekit 8200 yesterday, and using your good advise, it's now feeding great vibes through the headphones, without any speakers connected. I've been re-watching part 2, that's a very intriguing headphone mod you've done, and it makes sense. Built-in, the replacement jack looks great installed into the case.👍
Great content; I've always been intrigued by DIY stuff but also intimidated by it at the same time. K Gilmore has a few designs (CFA2 & Dynahi) have all been something I wanted to do but just haven't gotten enough motivation to do it.
Glad you liked it. Building a DIY kit can be daunting, but it's absolutely worth doing because it's so rewarding. Just be sure to start with a simple kit (e.g. Bottlehead Crack) for your first build so you can learn, gain confidence and not be put off.
I've got one more review to produce and then I can finally do my Part 2 with: Lundahl transformers upgrade, low output impedance mod, capacitor changes and a fresh paint job 😁
Hi Kenneth, I'm fairly confident you can apply the mods I'll be discussing because they're capacitor swaps and a simple circuit to the the power output without needing crazy high output impedance.
Now that Sydney is in COVID lockdown, I took my TU-8200 out from storage to try with a pair of Beyerdynamics DT990 Pro (250Ohms). Although I built the amp many years ago, I have not used it as a headphone amp before. I am pleasantly surprised by how well it pairs with a high impedance pair of cans. Really looking forward to Part 2 to see how you do your mods! Would it be possible to get a sneak peek of the schematic or parts list so that we can order the caps and resistors?
Hi Tommy, there's a bit to collate so I can't provide it off the top of my head, but I think the biggest improvement is likely from the headphone jack I added off the speaker taps to reduce the output impedance. For that, you need a 6.3mm headphone socket (you can do something inline or chassis mounted) and a set of 2x 1 ohm and 2x ~20 ohm audio grade resistors (I used Mundorf). My prototype used cheap generic resistors and the difference in sound quality with the Mundorfs was huge! Other than that, I changed the coupling caps and a couple of others that I don't think had that large an impact. I can't recall which places on the board they were in or what values they need to be until I go back to my notes - sorry!
@@PassionforSound Thanks for your quick response Lachlan! I think I will hold off swapping out the coupling capacitors with expensive PIO capacitors until I see your Part 2 video. In the meantime, I will reduce the amplifier's output impedance with the resistive divider circuit you prescribed. Thanks!
No problems, Tommy. The resistor setup is a simple L-Pad design so the 20 ohm (approx) resistors go in series with the signal path (one in the L+ and one in the R+ wire), the 1 ohm resistors then connect from L+ and R+ (after the 20 ohm resistors) to the common ground connector on the 6.3mm socket.
