Bottlehead vs. Audionote Kits

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,

Thank you all for chiming in. Really appreciate the input.

Alan

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.

Hello Ranjan, interesting coincidence. Have been giving a lot of thought to the SET amps and alternatives. Just ordered the ANK EL34i with C-Core transformers. Should arrive in several weeks. Really looking forward to the build and listening. 

I've built the ANK EL34 (with IE transformers) as a power amp, the L4 remote preamp and the L3 phono. Also, a Bottlehead Stereomour, Quickie, and Foreplay 2. I'm waiting for delivery on the Bottlehead BeePre and Kaiju 300B pre and power amps. I think Bottlehead's manuals tend to be more complete and up to date, which has me leaning their way a little more lately. But the form factor is a little funky compared to the more standard ANK stuff. Nobody mentioned Elekit, but I love the TU-8200 integrated.