Willsenton R8: Fixing the Shielded Volume Control Wiring 

Hi! Two weeks ago I received my Willsenton R8 in order to go some of the changes you propose. I was surprised to notice that most of them were in! I think that the manufacturers watch your clips! It’s great!

Thank you! I also have this humming/buzzing noise in my R8. Now I understand what is causing it.

I just watched your entire Willsenton R8 series, kinda just like watching some informative and entertaining thing on Disney+. Great stuff. On your comments about the headphone jack and good separate headphone amplifier alternatives. How about doing a series on good headphone amplifier DIY options?! I'm sure it would be great.

This seems like an easy fix and should have been by the manufacturer.

Just wanted to say thanks for giving me the courage to take on this project. Went through the mods one at a time. Not an electronics engineer by any means but managed to complete the amp upgrades just fine. Plugged it in and BEHOLD! No SMOKE:) Sounds amazing!! One thing I noticed is the transformers run totally cool now. I used to be able to cook an egg on those puppies. Now they're barely warm. Thanks again for this series.

So many issues to correct on this amp .........In many cases but not all you get what you pay for ! The ground loop indeed ! .....the ground should stay as a shield on the signal wires but should only be connected to one end ....your diagnosis and advice for correcting this error is correct ! I suspect that most of these amplifiers are not designed by people from old school knowledge .......good thing there are people like you and experienced audiophiles wgho know how to build modify or repair tube amplifiers . In this case I would now even go and check/measure if the operation points of all the tubes are within the window of their correct operation conditions or if thssi amplifier is a tuber eater....as seen on some other designs. Nice job and good information for all people who love music ( as good as tube technology can bring them the joy of listening and closer to good music ) Have a nice day

Nice job. That amp looks very clean!

AWESOME!!!! Thanks for a great how to on this!!! I just replaced the two main power caps yesterday with some 330uf 550v that you sent me the link for!! Also replaced the .33 phase splitter caps with some Jentzen .33uf 1200v cpas and hoping to use the same for the four .22uf caps on either side, rooms a bit tight tho…. I will move to make this grounding mod next tho as I do have that humm in mine. Thanks Skunkie. 😁😁🤘🏼🤘🏼

Hi all, I have done following modifications on my Willsenton R8 MKI amplifier: 1.) Power supply mods, remove 115V/230 switch - Sonic (no hiss or hum), SQ 2.) Voltage Regulator Mod - Sonic, SQ (removes crosstalk, lesser noise floor, darker background) 3.) Bias Boards Mod - Sonic, SQ (smooths the sound) 4.) Grounding Mods (headphones output wires removal and input relay board grounding)- Sonic (no hiss or hum), SQ 5.) Grid stopper resistors 1kx4 on output tubes - Reliability, Safety, SQ (smooths the sound) 6.) Choke replacement - Reliability, Safety 7.) Power supply caps replacement with min. 500V ones - Reliability, Safety Optional 8.) Replace capacitors with higher grade electrolytic or polypropylene capacitors (Nichicon, Mundorf). - Reliability 9.) Replace all resistors with Vishay PRO metal film resistors - Reliability 10.) KT88 heaters wires rerouting and removing grounding jumper from heaters - Reliability, Safety 11.) Global Negative Feedback - GLNFB - Ongoing... After all job done I'm pleased to confirm everything that Stephe said or demonstrated in Willsenton R8 series. Thank You Stephe for posting all these valuebale videos and documentation!!!

Thank you for all your work, the information on the projects you do are both instructive and inspirational. I have an R8 and have been following this series with great attention. So far I have made to the point of doing your dual rail mod next. As opportunity and time allows I would love to see how much further you can take the R8. Maybe tackling an output transformer upgrade. I believe you mentioned in one of the earlier videos that it might be a weak link. Thank you again!

If you add a cap to the positive side of the coils on the on the relay's it will take any signal on the coils to ground if the relay coils are de-energized. Relay coils and relays are nosey.

Great videos, really enjoyed them. Just wondering how much would it cost, labor plus parts to have my R8 upgraded to this level.

thank you. great educational video!

Great video 👍 Thanks 😁

I am wondering if this would achieve the same result. Replace that long ground cable with a single shielded cable with the shield grounded only at the volume control end. Then cut the L/R shield connection at the RCA end?

Your videos are awesome. I setup my preamp and R8 exactly as you described near the end. Using a Freya+ and R8 volume set to about 3:00 o’clock. I honestly put my ear up to the mid range tweeter and listen for the quietest region of the volume dial. Then use the Freya to control volume and out the signal to the subwoofer. This way I get a 128 step relay attenuator and a super easy subwoofer integration. I suspect when I put this grounding edit to work in addition to the other mods I’ve done, I may be able to run the R8 at a more linear region of its gain spectrum. How would one bypass the entire input relay board and wire the signal directly to the volume?

Have you had a Decware zkit1 on the bench?

Why is it that theres a lot of modification on this integrated amp? Is it really bad amp??? I dont see on other tube amp like rogue audio. Primaluna. Audio research, mcintosh and so forth .

Interestingly, my amp did not come with the extra earth wire from the volume control to the relay region

Hi all. Whats the best wire guage for this? Thanks

Interesting that the Chinese can design and build reference level DACs but can’t build a tube amp with technology that’s been around for over a hundred years! Thanks for the video

8k I will also need a lot more 8888u

i dont have a hum or any noise at all, why is this

Yeah, it becomes more and more obvious why these Chinese amps are a lot of hardware for the money...they need a lot of attention to finesse them and ensure reliability... which is fine if you like DIY....It's a shame in a way, because most of the important mods are fairly cheap and easy to implement and could be done by the manufacturer within the same budget....But then they need you to do the trouble shooting!.....