Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

Map,
Brian was going to ship me some replacement tubes in case it was a tube issue but UPS returned it to him for some reason. It'll be interesting to see if the tech finds a bad tube.

Rebbi,
Did you like the sound of the Tekton Katz?
It appears that Morricab(Audio Asylum) was correct regarding the beauty of De Capo with a SET amplifier. I'm very curious to see what the tech finds wrong with your amplifier. Could be something quite simple. This has been a very good thread. Very interesting and with mature behavior displayed. I appreciate the absence of trolls, drama queens and pissing contests (what a relief).
Charles,

Charles,
As for the lack of drama in the thread, yes, I appreciate that as well. "Real life" provides enough of that already! Here we ought to enjoy ourselves, learn new things from each other and help each other out. (Come to think of it, we should be doing more of that in real life, too.)
As for the Katz Meow's, I got a kick out of hearing them. And it was very generous of sebrof to drag them up a flight of stairs with me to put them into his main rig. (He has a great listening space, by the way.)
First of all, I really liked the look. They are a lot more diminutive than I'd expected; kind of "cute," really! And those shiny, white, Fostex 8-inch'ers look very sharp against the matte black cabinet.
I'm also very intrigued to see how Eric's design philosophy has evolved. You see a theme there: the wide range driver supplemented by the super tweeter. But he put the tweeter in a separate housing up top, stepped back for time alignment. I have to imagine this was more expensive and involved to produce than his current, rectangular cabinets but I'm wondering why he dropped time alignment as I believe (from my experience with the De Capo's and that fact that Israel Blume employs it in the Coincident TE II's) that it has real benefits.
So I think sebrof has the 2.0 version. I've looked at Internet photos of version 3.0 and it featured a series of slotted ports down the front of the cabinet. Interesting. I don't remember where sebrof's are ported, perhaps he can chime in.
As for the sound, I was under some time pressure to get back to work so we plunked them down in front of all his other gear (which is amazing, by the way) so they weren't getting any boundary reinforcement. All that's to say that I was rushed and we couldn't place them carefully and ideally.
That said, I found what I heard to be very good; incisive and clear with great tone. But that's really as far as I could get. I'd like to spend more time with them or another Tekton design in an environment where we could tweak placement to the nth degree.
Let me also compliment sebrof on his Tube Audio Lab 2A3 kit. It sounds really sweet.

Rebbi,
To me you didn't seem that open to Tekton during the thread so of course I'm happy you got to hear a pair even if not the latest incarnation. You really owe it to yourself to hear the Lore or M-lore if you must change from DeCapo. I get the impression you didn't believe or trust Tim Smith (6moons) Scott Hull (part-time-audiophile) Robinson and others from Enjoy The Music, the Positive Feedback, Stereomojo stuff, Awards from publications, or first-hand experience from some folks on this thread. Granted, there are many fine speakers out there; but not that many quality brands with high efficiency and benevolent impedance for low-powered tube, especially SET at 8 watts at less than $2,000 with a bottom end that extends to below 40hz. Also, I don't normally
push as hard as I did for a particular speaker because one begins to sound like a one-note pony, perhaps with a connection to the company, or you sound like salesman. If you had six thousand bucks or more my recommendation might be different. Maybe not. As Enjoy the Music and other reviewers have pointed out, for example, the Tekton Pendragon can go head-to-head with $20,000 speakers. I believe I gave you an honest assessment from my point of view and your equipment choice/budget. I'm gonna' try hard not to mention Tekton again as this thread continues...

"We should be doing more of that in real life, too" - Rebbi
Hear, here!