Hi team!

Well, I did it. I built one. Admittedly not a Skunkie design but, I am darn happy!

I'm generally new to vacuum tube amps (you may have seen some of my other newbie posts), but I decided to take the DIY plunge.

I watched lots of Skunkie videos (hours of them), took lots of notes, did a lot of other research and freshened up my electrical engineering chops a bit, and I settled on a design based on a EJ Jurich design. It's a 3 stage amp using 6SN7 for input a driver stages, and a 6L6 for power stage (I used Tung-Sol 7581A in place of 6L6 - awesome!).

I kinda flew blind using only a DMM and a Variac (and a little AC socket amp/volts meter thingy from Amazon), but it worked out. I have an oscilloscope and wave generator arriving later today so I will then look at it that way. I built and tested (via DMM) the power supply portions first, then wired up the signal stuff. Then I fired it up with dummy loads, and then "old" speakers.

After listening to this for several hours now (I can't stop), I have to say I am amazed!! It sounds absolutely fantastic. Crystal clear, warm, spacious - all that you'd expect (as a newbie anyway) - and super quiet. Absolutely no hiss or hum that I can detect (aside from some minor physical hum from the Edcor power transformer, which Sunkie alludes to in one of her videos, but it's not a problem).

My speakers have 92 db sensitivity and, with a turntable preamp (from Schitt), it has plenty of power/volume for normal listening. More than enough really.

I've attached a couple of pictures and final schematic. The interior isn't the neatest work, but it's my first one, so I was learning as I went about ways to arrange things. I wasn't striving for interior beauty, but I did respect the locations of AC, etc.

I'm planning to add an input selector switch, perhaps a power LED, and may even add an externally accessible pot to tweak the resistor on the 40% ultra-linear tap (just to play around with that).

I didn't go cheap on parts. Several Mundorf and Nichicon caps, Hammond output transformers, Audio Note volume pot, and almost entirely carbon film resistors (old school).

Anyway, I'm super happy and look forward to the scope testing!

All the best,

DM