Suffice to say, both the DIY kit and the solid state Koda met with our approval, and (except for pluto and maybe jules) this is a rather hard-core tube crowd! After this, we reconnected the Koda and listened to analogue playback.Ĭomments are welcome any time. As you see, it was not quite a David vs Goliath scenario. The Votes Though still a flawed prototype, some of us preferred the DIY tube preamp, but pluto, a DIY man, admired the Koda. Immediately, the saxophone and guitar sounded much fleshier and much closer to the Koda, but at a cost - the percussion lost almost all of the snap (a price I personally would not pay). A Little Tube Rolling As there were Europhiles present, Valvo long plate's were swapped in for the RCA (D getter, grey plates). With the jazz CD, virtues were more split: the percussion had better rhythmic expression and exactitude with the Kondo clone the saxophone and guitar sounded much fuller with the Koda - a surprise as usually one would expect the reverse. Immediately, there were more air and a deeper soundstage, and the front corners were better illuminated. It seemed to be modern sounding, with a surprisingly fast leading edge (methinks faster than the Koda).
Sound The Kondo clone actually sounded quite decent. No exotic components were used - Dale resistors and Wima red caps for the line section Philips caps for the power section. For the line section, the two triodes of the 12AX7 were coupled and output was cathode follower. The DIY preamp employed 6X4 rectification and MOSFET regulation. Suffice to say, davewong geared up and had the prototype ready that day (click on right pic to enlarge), so we took it along to Jules. Since it is said to be a Kondo-clone, I expressed an interest to hear it (a very rare occurrence). Surprise! David vs Goliath? As it happened, our yumcha friend davewong had been building a Kondo-clone preamp based on the very simply laid out boards by thomasfw. It is buried deep in this article (roll down to the David vs Goliath section). ALL of the boards are designed by our host himself (he is in the industry!)Īctually you may have read about its prototype before. And they are not cheap because they use boutique parts like M-cap and Leader volume control from hificollective. If you look at the pics, you shall see work of a high standard. Like many DIYers, I think he derives more pleasure from making things than listening to them. Our yumcha friend Thomasfw is a DIYer of some repute. Modified August 7, 2020: The host actually designed ALL his PCBs none from outside suppliers.
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