You are providing an ongoing source of expertise and experimentation to provide the audio community with a rich resource. Your generosity of spirit can only be reciprocated by community members who would choose to jump at the opportunity of using one of your designs by paying for your time, energy expertise and parts. I’m based in the UK and will purchase your amp if and when you ‘go into production’ so to speak. Thank you for all you do. It is NOT taken for granted.
From what I understand, Decware wasn't doing much until they got a great review from THE AUDIOPHILIAC Steve Guttenberg RU-vid channel. Then COVID kicked in and people got bored at home and got into the hobby and created a huge backlog. Some of their stuff has a 3 year wait! Any plans for making a headphone amp with an output transformer for low to high impedance headphones?
I think this is a great idea! Look at Decware - they have a 2 year waiting list. I hope you will also consider building and selling mono blocks as I would definitely be willing to buy those. Thank you!
Go for it! You've laid the groundwork, not just for yourself but for any of us who build quality amps and looked at some of these China amps and wondered how in h311 they could offer quality (which all the reviewers were saying was there) for those prices!
Awwww Skunkie. Really exciting news. I hope you can make it work. Really look forward to seeing the whole process. You are an inspiration, and have brought me in your journey allowing me to build units. ❤ So excited. Good luck, I will wait and watch how you get on with this
Consider using the 12AT7 instead of the 12AX7 as a driver tube, a little less gain but lower plate resistance and lots of inexpensive new and NOS options for tube rolling (which is fun). I think you might find that it works better as a driver (could be a good idea for a video).
He'll yeah! If you can get a review unit to make its rounds, I believe that would be a significant boost. Here's a shot in the dark, Steve Guttenberg the audiophiliac would be a great one if you could rope him into it. You never know:-)
Also my secret to getting aluminum processed very inexpensively is to have aluminum pcbs made. LOL it works great. I will send you a picture if I knew how to get it to you. Most importantly, it is cheap
Having literally just finished building your 6SQ7/EL34 amp design, I can attest to how wonderful it sounds! It is ironic that you are going the 12AX7 route as I have begun looking into the conversion also based on the availability of 6SQ7 tubes being tight. I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor Stephe!! Thank you again for all of your efforts!
What you have against China? Lol. Hope you do a great small er amp . Do you know the guy in Tennessee,that makes transformers. Some US. Or Mexico? I have tried his 5K 8K. 10 watt se. On a economy 6l6. 19 watt disp. Runs at 300 volts. About 6 watts clean. Just a thought. Hammond makes good pwr. I've used hundreds in my lifetime as a repair. If I had money and able. Like the video. Keep up. Your doing a good job 🦜🍍❤️🌹🌹👍😎
Only watching you for a couple months now but knowing there might be an actual product from you on the market makes me happy for some reason. Really looking forward to the project. Living in Germany I hope to get my hands on it one day. All the best to you and the project! Edit: omg full schematics! I didn't dare to ask something in that regards.
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻! All systems go for that idea from my perspective Steph. An amp like you describe at the price range you estimate would definitely be something that would peak my interest and there seems to be room in this category for more players, especially one’s like yourself as an enthusiast and creator. The added basic controls/toggles you propose would be a very added value proposition. Please keep us all informed and I’ll look forward to your project.
I will be interested in buying your amp. Right off the bat I am a Dynaco and Heathkit fan. My I suggest you offer three level of builds and the DIY'er can buy an entry level amp (kit) and do self upgrades to the upper levels builds. Very similar to what Bottle Head offers. I understand the extra work and headaches this would cause. The amplifier in kit form would be sold with no support for problems and be referred to a user forum on you site to handle problems.
Hi Skunkie, im a class D guy (bruno putzey somthing :) but i love your videos and the effort you make for the tube guys. your honesty by measuring all gear etc etc. its awesome! keep it up.
skunkie, i was checkin out thermionic labs but went to music power supplies and was real happy with my experience, so i bought some OPTs from matt MPS. itd be nice if we manufacture something here other than war weapons.
Thank you for wording it ! we should be proud of US labor quality and start making things here. Need to put a stop to cheap chinese imports with no quality control whatsoever. You may want to explore some other country which can provide the quality you want. That could be an option also. All said and done, don't give up on your plans ..👍
Tango and Tamura are my favorite transformers, which I use in my designs. You can certainly submit these to the various audiophile sites for reviews as well. Your price point is too low in my opinion. $3,000 might be in the ballpark for wholesale or a kit, but for what you’re describing, the retail would seem to be more like $6,000-8,000. In regard to all the options, I recommend Keep It Simple. You van always make a second model ultralinear amp!
Yeah, I'm not sure about the switchable stuff. And these would be UL, there are plenty of triode amps on the market. And possibly in the future I could build more upscale stuff, I'm not sure I would be able to sell a simple EL34 SEUL amp for $6000-8000.
@@SkunkieDesignsElectronics Send review amps to What Hi Fi, Enjoy The Music, 6 Moons, Stereophile, etc. -- while it's a hobby for you, the level of personal work, fine tuning, and parts matching you are doing is certainly on a level with boutique amp builders like Don Garber (Fi) etc. and you shouldn't undervalue your efforts. You can build 10 amps at $2,500 or 5 at $5,000. Both come to $25k, but which one will lead to burn out faster?
( more ) Mr Young Ahn from Fluxion ( Canada ) makes a very small runs of amps that he sells directly to clients . He makes his own transformers and orders the metal chassis from South Korea ( I think ) If he can do it , you can !!!! I've got 2 from him. Very good IMUO.
I’m in to tube set up since 2006. No regret they still works fantastic. I use 300B @ 2A3. Cary and audio note Also using Ecl 82 incredible. Pls start making thing in usa itself.
I agree, people will pay for high quality products made in the US. It won’t be high volume because of price and slower manufacturing process, but that’s ok. You’d be a boutique manufacturer that could last for years selling high-quality products. I hope users understand the difference enough to know that it may cost many times more than a Chinese version. I think it’s great that you are asking users what they’d pay. It may end up being something that you can’t make money on. I know for sure, you could make something in China that would kill the competition. I know how to get stuff made to high-quality specs, in China. If you change your mind and want to offer a lower price, but high-quality product made in China, I’ll help however I can. But I also understand your concerns with the worker pay, conditions, dealing with the culture, etc. I agree, the US is rip for a renewed interest in high quality, made in America products. Also, there’s a way to use Chinese factories to make up cases, quality boards, heat sinks, etc. Then find a way to assemble in the US under your supervision, but not necessarily have you soldering sets together. You’re better off using your skills promoting and delivering high quality products with exceptional customer service. I have no clue how to get something assembled in the US, but maybe it’s something you could talk to our local government representatives about. I realize dealing with the sellers of Chinese products hasn’t been fun for you so far. That’s unfortunate. I think it’s because the trading companies think they are protecting their brand/products by attacking your creditably. They don’t realize how rude they are being. They aren’t the real manufacturer, as you know. I think you’d have a better experience dealing directly with the manufacturers. Most high quality electronics are made in China and Taiwan for the same reason they were made in Japan in the 60’s and 70’s. Cheaper labor, flexible manufacturing, and knowledgeable people running the companies. Look at the current products, from Emotiva, Galion, etc. I would love to see what Mr. Willsenton would say about a joint venture with you. That’s all Thomas did for the Galion. He took a good Doge tube amp made in China and improved it. Manufacturers like this arraignment because they can focus on what they do best (building things) and you focus on what you do best (selling, promoting, customer service). The company that is making Galion’s has stopped their own production of Doge amps to strictly build Thomas’ products. By the way, they were selling the Dodge for $2,500. Thomas made very few changes and sells it for $3,500 and $4,500 with small upgrades. What if you took the X7 or R8 and made it perfect so you could make $1,000 a unit by selling it for $2,500. Would people pay $2,500 to $3,000 for a Skunkie (much improved Willsenton R8)? I know I’d gladly pay you for one, or two, or more! But, I’d also probably be a buyer for your made in America product. Even though I know it would cost more. I wish you the best and hope you can make this dream into a reality.
Totally support your intention. The 2 grands pricing would be quite reasonable - as you figure it yourself. I would have ordered for 1.8 , but I'm in Russia, which entails some difficulties nowadays. (Have a possibility to do it via Thailand, shipping is normally possible towards there from US). One maybe off-topic question: what's your attitude to autobiasing feature in some of the amps? As is the case with e.g my inexpensive Musical Paradise (built on KT88 +6J8P). Seems it's very convenient for not very involved users. - Love your channel; my pers opinion the way you present information is quite exciting.
I think showing people how you build their amps would provide tremendous product value. It'd be a very creative approach to content creation and something no one else is doing.
That's the plan and I hope a lot of people build their own! I do have a lot of folks who just can't DIY and are begging me to put something up for sale, I think this is it.
Thank you for all your work, me personally need your expertise to design and share schematics and BOM’s. I cut my teeth with building Hoffman amp designs, Slucky’s designs, BlueAudio,Park Audio and Cascades designs. I will and have spent $$$ to build myself and donated money towards you engineers and your design. Transformers are hard and few choices to come by these days. Make transformers here, yes, I will pay reasonable prices for American made. Don’t give up
The Edcor OPT's are excellent and measure well, great choice. So many people who have never measured, let alone listened to Edcor OPT's trash them. I offer custom tube amp building at a very low price and you are correct, no one wants to pay anything today for proper design, layout, and PROPER construction with real components: the American public is hugely ignorant to what quality costs today for products and services. Keep up the great work and I would avoid selling anything to the public. They simply don't appreciate what you do.
DIY kit with quality checked components!! (Next to possibility to buy completely built one would be fantastic). For the case: think they are from china, but with fantastic reputation: Ghent audio you might try them...
Best of luck on your venture. Don't be afraid to charge for your talent and expertise. Plenty of cheap china stuff for folks who don't want to spend what a quality and sonically superior tube amp sells for.
Hope one day you will get to build Elekit amps - have done their 8200 and 8900 6L6 and 300b. they tend to use jumpers not switches to configure mode and feedback - might be worth a thought for your new amp - allows for changing settings, not quite as easy as a switch but cheaper and less wiring to induce noise etc. Both the ones I tried were easy to build and sound great.
$2500 is a perfect price point. I think I represent your target market and would be happy to give you a couple thoughts on how to attract customers like me if you are interested. You are proposing a great product. I’d love to see you succeed.
Kits just require too much customer service and HOURS of detailed instructions. I can just see spending hours every day looking at phone pictures and talking on the phone trying to figure out what people have done wrong.
Fantastic news and thanks for all your time and effort! I think you are doing a great job of combining high quality / low volume production (made in USA) with a solid commercial business plan which protects you from burn out and stress of dealing with the low margin "China prices" market. With your loyal on line followers you can offer beta test designs and carry out real world market research which is a win win for you and the early bird customers, then release the full production version.... Its such a solid business model and it allows you to earn a good living doing what you love, whilst supporting USA jobs and customers.
I know I'm late to the party, but I'm onboard for circa 2K. Love the tier idea, offering upgraded parts for an upcharge. Also, maybe just a way to make a nice DIY wooden case around the outside. I have been looking at some of the flea-watt triode units you mentioned in other videos, But I remain reluctant to buy them. For me, the ideal would have 2 inputs, no or low feeback, 2-6 wpc, high-quality parts, made in USA, and use easily available tubes. Love what you're doing, sister! Subbed.
Congrats on the new venture, Stephe.. I would suggest getting a stiffer chassis with a 3mm minimum thickness.. And get the best Power Supply Caps as you can within budget, preferably quality polyprop film on the input and last decoupling stages.. Avoid miniature lytics even in the middle smoothing section; the chunkier Nichicon KX’s for example are quite good.. If going with Mundorf couplers, I would just go with the oil-free Mcap Supremes, they already sound great and require less break in than the oil filled cousins.. Then Elna Silmic II’s on the input/driver cathodes, if they have them, and AN for the output stage cathodes if not fixed bias..
To be honest, I had thought you had gotten past that. LOL. I cannot for the life of me understand why you would want to do a commercial build. It certainly is not for money. I just wonder what the root of the reasoning is. I know you are talented, practical, personable, generous. Many of those are not the qualities of a business person. A 'maker' I suspect is what fits you best. Many makers find a way to 'market' their wares. I have absolutely no experience in business, and when I had chances to get into business ventures in the way-past, I did not have the courage to do so, with so much family, livelihood etc. at risk. Anyway, I will continue to watch your channel, as it is interesting, engaging, and informative. Good luck, and I suspect, as some have said, your price point is likely too low. As a side note, we have several new Amish families to move into our part of the county. They came from an area in further northern NY State that was getting more urbanized and land was getting scarce. Nonetheless, they have started a metal fabrication business/service. I imagine that they could not only drill all the holes you need in your chassis, they could likely do the entire fabrication from sheet metal. Whether they could powder coat is another story. If you want feelers, let me know. Roger
If that was required, none of these small amp companies could exist. Honestly there is ALWAYS something one could worry about and it's why very few options exist. If you cover every potential eventuality, you would need to spend $500,000+ before the first unit was sold.
And when you're ready to ramp up production all you have to do is "send" a unit to one of the usual suspects for review. After all their gushing you'll have a backlog like you won't believe.RU-vid reviewers sure do love it when people "send" them products!
Hi. You can not get a good and reliable el34 se amp for less than 2000, 2200 bucks. I tried this reisong a10 and it broke down after a few hours. Disappointing and waste of money. I liked the sound of a se el 34, so I bought an unison research simply italy. That thing is built very nice and has a very good sound. Greetings from Dusseldorf, Germany
Great work perhaps consider selling a full parts kit to let many subs who build their own to buy your parts/design to save some production cost too goodluck
Thats a great idea ! I completed some of the mods that Skunkie suggested and had fun doing it ! Plus there are the rewards of doing it yourself ! I am not a designer but I understand Steph's logic an d common sense approach ! I just purchased a Elekit 8600S kit because a know the way Japanese approach things in electronics as I worked for a Japanese company as a Equipment Technician for 35 years. Attention to detail is one the most important elements along with quality workmanship. Skunkie Designs has both of those in spades.
No doubt Asian labor is cheaper, but do you think you can actually find people in the US with the patience and personality to learn to build electronics by hand?
As there's an international following of your channel (at least I'll wager it's not just me!!) providing either kits or detailed plans so us foreigners can build these too would be awesome...I mean more than RU-vid demos (those too, though), I don't know, maybe something like a 50 page pdf document that provides a ton of detail and a tutorial for, say, $40 or $50 - I'd buy!
I do plan to do a complete video series as well as release full schematics and a BOM aimed at both US and folks across the globe. I do plan for this to be an "open source" type product with a limited production for non-DIY folks to be able to have one. I suspect the typical "China clone" to also happen but those as we have seen will likely miss the mark on quality as they target a low price point.
Right, this is just going to be a "plain Jane" amp with no real tricks up it's sleave, should sound nice with most speakers etc. It does have a couple of unique things, nothing crazy :)
That sounds like a great idea. I've got a 6SN7 EL34 tube amplifier, and I like 12AX7 tubes, so putting this together sounds great idea. Making an American built tube amplifier like Deware is going to be better than any Chinese product that has limited or zero customer service, which would be worth the premium costs.
As someone who built the original 6SQ7 (I documented the build in the forum) I can only say that this is an amazing amp. You have a real gem here, and I hope series 1 will be a great success. I personally think having the inputs conveniently in the back does not sacrifice audio quality, and I'd also suggest you think about two, switchable inputs, but you probably know what the market wants. Looking forward to seeing you reaching the next level.
I think you would be very successful and I encourage you to go forward and determine feasibility within the paradigm of quality (components) and design you have illustrated. Decware amps get rave reviews so I assume they are worthy but try to get one and then of course there is the speaker efficiency to consider if purchasing a Decware. (the lower powered units). If, as you say, a superior sounding amp can be built and allow the flexibility you state relevant to speaker efficiency then you would truly have a winner. My concern would be the volume pot (quality thereof).... ie: how well would the amp perform at low to mid low volume? I understand that poor quality volume control can preclude proper audio balance at low listening levels. You can correct me if I am wrong. The speakers I am considering purchasing are the new Zu DWx bookshelfs. Steve Guttenberg claims that they are champs at low volume. ZU rates them at 95 db with Impedance: 12 ohm nominal full spectrum, 8 ohm baseline. No idea what "full spectrum" means. In any case, please do keep us abreast of your development process. I do wish you luck... I am very impressed.
Last year I got idea to have also SE rather smaller power amplifier just to check what more I can get in compare to brand made two PP of the same range of power tubes. All I can say it was worthy any minute of effort I put to make it. Not much minutes as I did it exclusievely for my joy and research - not striving for gloosy look and using whatever I found in my home trash. I made it with second hand chassis - part of scrapped oscylosope. Made it in amateur technology - point to point - original board scrapped. I was inspierd in general by Philips - small popular SE amplifier which was produced in early 60 ties when "stereo" was still a hugh innovation. Hopefully I got such one scrapped - it was printed board with elements with original patentiometrers (not double stereo but unusual doubled single potentiometers mechanicaly coupled ) and of course without enclosure. It suited me personally because was designed with 3 tubes in each channel - ECC83 ( 12AX7) plus EL95. Tubes were not included. . That spare amplification secured originaly applied by philips standard tone controls and phisiology correction Strangely that amplifier uses a surprisingly little output transformers My main innovation was use of popular ECL82 tubes instead of EL95 - that was because EL95 are hard to get while my other tube amlituner Pioneer has them and I had more spare in drawer. Bad side is that trides are gloving and taking current - so I added supporting transformer for 6,3V. Other 4 innovations are "strange" switch in feedback configuration (both modes are pentode ) which in "on" deepens phisiology correction and widens image, next suiting my spakers tonal alteration in feed back , third was small alterations of values of tone controls decided by listening and finally potentometer of volume at input. Impressions - no compareable to what I could get before from my other bigger power tube and solid amplifiers - it opened my ears and set new higer standards. Downside? Although that small 4 W amplfier drives speakers down to 25 Hz it is short of power in particular recordings which are reach in such lowest harmonics. Because some I recorded to tape in past with already low boost while not switchable phisiology correction boost it too. I use low tone cut filter for turntable or adopt level of loudness correction to avoid distortions. Anyway for listening in flat with neighbours in 80% of my music which is mostly classic , electronic or prog rock I do not use max power.
Got a couple ( maybe 4 ) tubes amps here. Fluxion are hand made in Canada, by Mr Young , and my Quicksilvers V4 also ( almost ? ) and made by Mike Sander .
I think you should go for it Steph ! People will pay the price what ever it is to have a quality tube amp. I am happy to see you will maybe do this because you have a special talent ! Your logic is spot on ! If you build it they will come ! Good luck Steph !
Have you considered the 5751 over the 12AX7 for the driver? I have a Joule Electra LA-100 MKII preamp that I have done some tube rolling on and although the 5751 doesn't have the gain factor of the 12AX7 (About 70%), it sounds way better imho.
There's always room for a good, low power, SE £L34 amp. The choice of EL34 plus 12AX7 guarantees future valve availability. I haven't followed this amp's progress but in my mind the following operation mode options are definitely the right way to go (as mentioned): a) both triode and pentode operation modes b) feedback and no feedback operation modes As possible upgrades I would think that optional: c) upgrades on transformers and other crucial parts and d) a perforated (cheap but sturdy) metal cover (for those with kids and pets) that can be fixed securely to the chassis should be made available. Switchable output impedance, I think, is very expensive to offer in a production piece and I think no-one requires it so it is probably not needed. Finally, to keep the price at a reasonable level and minimize production errors, a pcb construction, I believe, is absolutely necessary. Elimination of any unnecessary frills and ornamental stuff could bring the price even lower but that's up to the designer to estimate what the consumer expects at the price level aimed for. Whatever the choice, the amp should be instantly recognizable, e.g. if displayed at a shop window, a passer-by should recognize it or be interested in finding out about it. I hope this endeavour is successful, however, these are quite tricky times. On the other hand, one can never wait for times to be exactly right and market uncertainty can prove fortuitous as there are always opportunities to be had.
It's not going to be PCB construction. As far as a cover, an optional one wouldn't be that difficult but would likely add about $75-$100 to the cost to do something decent. Low production and cheap don't go together :)
@@SkunkieDesignsElectronics if it is made with point-to-point or any other method of wiring, that fact should be pointed out as it is something that will make it stand out from the competition. I am not sure it was mentioned in this video - maybe I missed it. Also, allowances for fitting an optional cover on the chassis, if this is going to be offered as an option, will need to be made. This might be slightly trivial but it might change the looks of the uncovered chassis somewhat. Also, the looks of the product with the cover on have to be assessed in advance.
All my amps are point to point. And any cover is going to detract from the appearance IMHO. I've found a solution for people who insist on one, but it basically just covers the whole top of the amp like many tube amps in the past did. I'm not going to expend a lot of resources trying to make some super fancy looking cover given I honestly doubt anyone will order one. Out of the hundreds of comments, you are the first person to even mention this.
Oh I'm very retro in my taste@@SkunkieDesignsElectronics , so definitely in the minority in that respect. If no-one is interested in a cover, then that's that. I like the mystique that the cover creates. I guess it maybe is due to the fact that the first valve amp I ever saw, at a very young and tender age, had a cover on and it did trigger my curiosity instantly - the only place you'd find valves at that time were some old black-and-white tvs. Valves were considered seriously outdated technology back then and were looked down on. I think that when its owner mentioned its price (I still remember it) my jaw dropped and I was quite shocked that anything with valves in it could be considered esoteric hi end. I only just realised you also had a website earlier today so I'll check it out. I do not frequent diyaudio any more the last few years - nowhere near as much as I did in the past. I'm sure I've missed a few interesting threads. What annoys me is that all these great threads of the past are now full of non-functioning links so many of them are now next to useless - a great shame. You don't have that issue with youtube but youtube is mostly a monologue rather than a conversation with many parties.
I also built the original el34/6SQ7 amplifier which sounds fantastic and would love to learn more about the switchable feedback and UL/triode switch. I am collecting parts to build the KT120 amps and cant wait to build these.
I agree with your thoughts on made in US; this country is doomed if steps like this aren’t taken and embraced by the market. As for the pricing and target audience, some further thought might be needed: targeting a $2k+ made-in-US amp at folks with $500 made-in-China speakers seems incongruous; generally someone willing to spend $2k or more on an amp is not shopping Amazon for their speakers. Perhaps, though, you should not let this dissuaded you, especially if your target is selling on the order of several dozen amps. Things have become inflated in the 2 or so years since I assembled my system so this may not be possible currently, but at that time I spent $1k on a Decware SE84UFO, $1k for a pair of Zu Omen II DWs and $800 on a Schiit Bifrost DAC creating an excellent, not at all tubey sounding system, all made-in-US, that can play in the 90s at 2 or 3 meters in my modest size room.
Skunkie, long time watcher and fan. I have done a couple of your projects with great success. I think this idea of a hand made, IN USA, quality tube amplifier is fabulous. Your clear knowledge and attention to parts quality is key to making this something special. I'll sign up right now to fully fund a prototype or first edition with the ISO Trans and upgraded caps. I am serious about that. I'll buy it sight unseen. Major faith in you. -GM-
After the initial proof of concept, I'm planning to personally hand build 5 of these with ISO iron and upgrade Mundorf caps, burned in and each one tested before shipping. And honestly may just keep doing that and make a limited number of them to keep this simple.
This isn't directly relevant but it is a data point that's interesting. The Luxman MQ-88uC can be bought in Japan for $2800. The same amp sells in the US for $6200 or so and guess what -- ships to you in the US direct from the factory, just like the ones listed on Amazon Japan for half that much. KT88, JJ and Mullard tubes, 25wpc, push-pull TRIODE. Came out in the late teens. Not many reviews but the reviews out there are pretty solid, and the amp is drop-dead beautiful. Japanese-made right now means cheap. Maybe sourcing something from Japan would be interesting. The Japanese yen is on a firesale right now, and everyone here in Tokyo is exporting their brains out.
That tells me the price point of $2500 is reasonable, but I really want this to be a made in USA product for now. If I was younger, looking to grow this into a lifetime of employment for myself, I might be looking at this differently.
Lots of great ideas here. I would like to see whatever amp design YOU want, very simple, a volume control, and one set of RCA inputs. But, available as a kit, with or without an enclosure. And then a dedicated step by step video for the build. I would be all-in for that
A kit would come later. No matter how step by step I show people, I know I will spend hours helping some folks get it built, probably longer explaining than it would take me to build it. That's my fear with kits. And given how credit cards work, they could easily just claim I sold them junk and I get back charged for the whole thing.
Great that you are considering this Steph. If I build one, which I would like to at some point I will also add in switchable option for 6n2p-ev heaters ,as the input tube. That would be cool and wondered if you might consider it too. I run my Tubelab sse with old type winged c EL84's they fantastic tubes nicely detailed wonderfu for blues and Jazz.
Yes, I would buy such an amp from you as long as it's an "integrated" with min 2 inputs (please don't put those on the top-should be on the back) I have lots of faith in you. My wife and I love your channel.
I honestly am thinking the base model will be a "power amp" designed to be used with some sort of preamp and have the volume control be optional. The design will be focused on shortest signal path and what I feel is best for sonics, not on convenience. I may offer some options like you suggest, but everyone isn't going to get exactly what they want, unless they DIY build one :) I know some folks are also going to insist on a remote and other optional things that a pre-amp can provide.
That sounds like a very reasonable price point, I'm sure that many of your viewers are DIYers, in other words, cheap. Might I suggest a single tap output transformer around 5 ohms as on my VTLs. It seems to match most speakers quite well.
If you do go decide to go into production, find somebody that knows packaging. You will want to do multiple test drops off of a loading dock and have the amp survive. Obviously, the amp should be insured when shipping but it's probably easier to pack the item well than to collect on the insurance. Packaging can be expensive but someone in the business can help you figure out how to get it done without going broke. Unfortunately, I'm not that person - I just know packaging is a big deal that is easily overlooked until it becomes a source of stress.
The amp you describe sounds nice and would be much better than a ~$1200 amp. I think it would justify the cost you're proposing. Personally I'd rather build one but I think there is a market for pre built.
Go for it. Build the amp you would like to have. Make it awesome. Make it something you’re passionate about. Make it something you can afford. Then price it fairly. A high quality, reasonably priced, boutique, low powered tube amp will sell well. Decware has a waiting list for multiple models. I’m sure you’ll sell a bunch of amps if you want to. Put me down for one of those pre-production, proof of concept numbers. Like 002, or 007. Lol
