What's the greatest bargain in SET these days?

Hi Charles,
Yes, I was lucky that by chance as I was getting this built, I happened upon a forum where the Khozmo was mentioned. I researched it further, and called Brian who had one and sent it to Pete the builder who had already installed the Alps. He took it out and put in the Khozmo. Apparently, it's a precision resistor ladder type of attenuator. Not the fanciest by any means, but very good for the money, and better sounding than the Alps.
Rebbi,
The caps that Brian is speaking of are Mundorf gold silver oil. They were the standard issue in my version. I would look into the Jupiters, again if it is within the limits of what you want to spend, because they are said by those who know a lot more than I do to compare favorably with the very expensive Duelund caps. I only know that it sounds very good, and didn't cost too much. Like you, I didn't want to do things twice. They fit into the amp very well with no strange accommodations needed. When I had Pete build the ANK 2.1 DAC for me, I specified Duelund caps, and he had to put them in a different place due to their large size.

Hi Roxy54,
No question that just those two changes(capacitors and volume control) improved your already fine SET amplifier. It's refreshing that Brian is open to the idea of using higher quality parts for his amplifiers. Roxy I'm certain that your amp sounds terrific.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
Charles,

Rebbi, As for stepped attenuators you can also check out Goldpoint. Around $150. As mentioned above it is one of the most important parts of your amp.
Jet.

Thanks for all the good wishes and feedback, folks.

Corresponded with Brian again. (Very nice, very enthusiastic guy, by the way.)

I was confused at first because the web site says that the kit comes standard with Mundorf gold/silver/oil caps. Brian apologized and said that's an error on the site that he'll get fixed. The kit comes standard with Mundorf Supremes and the two upgrades they offer are the Mundorf Silver/Gold/Oil (which I'm getting) or the AN Copper. I checked on Partsconnexion.com and the Mundorf Supremes go for about $15 each but the Silver/Gold/Oils go for about $60 each... bottom line is he's giving me about an $80 discount off retail on the better caps.

As for the volume attenuator, it's going to have to wait. I really do have to stick to my budget. As I'm sure some of you can relate, this audio adventure takes place in the context of a family that needs to be sheltered, educated, clothed and fed. ;-)

I mentioned upgrading the volume pot to Brian and he said that it's about a $200 upgrade and that I should just talk to him when I'm ready to do it but that it's "not worth it now." Also, the kit comes with a nice PCB for the stock pot, which he recommends for a first-time install.

Ah, and one other interesting wrinkle. I see that Partsconnexion offers bundled upgrade kits for AN kits. For example, there's this Kit 1 tube upgrade bundle:

300B-Z Shuguang Treasure
6SN7 (CV181, ECC32)
Sylvania 5U4G/VT244 (NOS)
5687 Tungsol (NOS)

Bundle price: $536.18, about $95 off retail