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Bottlehead vs. Audionote Kits

Recently completed my second Bottlehead kit. I've now built a Crack headphone amp with Speedball upgrade and an Eros phono-pre. I couldn't be more delighted with both. First the challenge and fun of building has been a truly invigorating experience. The on going fun of tube rolling is great. Finally, both kits just sound terrific. I believe that I'm getting reasonable SOTA at a bargain price.

So here's my question. I'm thinking about building a SET amp for my second system. Do I go with Bottlehead Stereomour II with 3 1/2 Watts at $1,429.00 or Audio Note Kit 1 with 8 Watts at $2,325.00?

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Would love to hear from folks who've built or heard either.

Thanks in advance,

Alan

adeep42
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,764 posts
 
BH and see if it works for you. If not, sell it (for a profit!) and build the AN.
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,964 posts
 
adeep42,
I own the Kit 1, but I had it built for me. I have read on the forums though that support for builders is very good, and when I have called Brian with questions he has always been quick to respond. The assembly manuals have also been improved over the years. One post above remarks on the high price of the kits, but the material quality is very high, and the sound quality is fantastic. I actually consider them a great value. I have heard of the Bottlehead of course, but have no experience with it.
The Kit 1 has been around for quite a while, and is considered a classic. If you are driving efficient speakers, I think that you would be delighted with it. They are good looking too. 
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
Both companies have earned very good reputations for support and value as well as good sound. The Audio Note is more expensive and for good reasons in my opinion. The chassis is larger and heavier to accommodate the big and high quality transformers (a crucial consideration for SET amplifiers). Power supplies are robust and parts quality is high. I have nothing negative to say regarding BH but I believe that the extra cost of the AN Kit is money well spent.

If you can afford the AN Kit I’d go for it and get upgraded coupling capacitors. In the long term these quality parts pay for themselves and yield superb sound. Their 300b SET amplifier is a true high end product. Just as Roxy accurately described  😊.
Charles,
adeep42 OP
118 posts
 
Thank you all for chiming in. Really appreciate the input.

Alan
ranjan
35 posts
 
I have owned a few pieces of ANK gear, though I have never built one myself, and have found them to be an extremely good value for the price. I currently have a ANK EL34 amp with the C-core transformers and I must say it is a wonderful unit. I have a friend that owns a ANK kit 1 and it is really an amazing amp, if paired with a nice set of high efficient speakers. I'm sold on the ANK gear. I must say however my experience with the BH units is very limited.
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