FYI There is no "Upgraded" or "V2" Willsenton R8

My guess is that no, there is no MkII of the R8. Willsenton is to decide to call an updated model like that, which does not mean that nothing was changed in the R8. As they say:

“The factory has not made any major adjustments to the performance and circuitry of the R8. The performance and sound characteristics of the R8 amplifier remain original.”

From what I know it’s not uncommon to make little changes while a model is in production and that’s what they say: nothing major was changed. And whatever was done does not affect the sound. So there’s no reason to call it MkII. It seems that Willsenton grudginly acknowledges that Skunkie was right with her criticism of the circuitry, made changes accordingly and prefer not to acknowledge her input.

Hard for the company to ignore the web modders of this unit who have been doing and showing their work online, and who have given their reasons for their work. Willsenton has been trying to compete in the market as a full-featured product brand but they have unintentionally become a producer of a product base for an equipment modding community who tear the units down and replace stock components and rework the wiring scheme, then move on to tube rolling. I am sure that isn't where Willsenton wanted to be. This started with end users trying to fix real defects in the product.

@chenry what web modders are you referring to? It’s seems like there is only one YT personality focused on modding this amp, she also seems to be the only one saying there were major revisions and referencing a mk2 version. Has Willsenton been selling flawed amps and then quietly fixed all these issues without any formal notice? Is it possible a YouTuber is trying to make a name for herself and boost sales for her business? Like I said, if they made obvious changes like changing cap values it should be simple to confirm exactly what they did. I haven’t sat through her entire r8 video catalog, but I didn’t come across any before or after segments or sound demos when I skimmed through.

Ok before anyone jumps down my throat, it appears skunky designs isn’t a business, and she isn’t doing content for financial gain beyond donations that I can see.  She also doesn’t list any electrical engineering qualifications or certification licenses of any kind.  It just says she’s a hobbyist.  I guess that’s good news in that may lesson her liability if she ever got sued.  She may also be on the hook for libel if the guys at Willsenton feel their reputation has been damaged by her content.  If a kind lawyer out there reads this please drop her an email and provide some helpful guidance.  I’d hate to see her get sued when it appears she is just trying to be helpful to the diy community.  Maybe she could add a few disclosures to the videos and website.  

Good luck with that claim. She pretty much did a Cook’s Tour of the amplifier showing the things that weren’t good quality and the components that were below spec. She has nothing to worry about on the issue of "libel," not least because her attention was drawn to the device when she was consulted on a remedy for a major failure of one unit which she identified the defect in design and created a solution to fix it, which then Willsenton implemented ("please tell the jury why, if it was OK already, as you say it was".) Willsenton then also improved the quality of the resistors and capacitors, some of which were under spec, and a choke, also under spec. She compared it to a Muzishare amp at the same price point, which is totally fair game for consumer review.

She isn’t offering engineering consulting services, so the point about professional credentials is moot. She is a skilled hobbyist AFAIK.

YT isn’t the only web venue where R8 modders are active, they are on AK, Reddit and probably other places I have not seen. I have seen other mods different from hers on YT as well.