Building the Audio Note Kit 1 SET amp...

Rebbi ;
You certainly have a thing for extended length threads !
Is Audiogon paying you by the contribution ? ;-)
LOL , keep it up and good luck !

Following up on my previous posts about the resistor value non-issue, I've found myself sufficiently captivated by all of this unfolding drama to complete a careful look at all of the photos at Rebbi's blog, looking for anything that might account for the problem.

I found nothing. As might be expected, everything looks to have been done meticulously and accurately. I even checked all resistor values against the schematics which are available on the Internet, with the exception of the four resistors on the filament supply board (those don't seem to appear on any of the schematics I found; apparently they were introduced during a relatively recent revision of the design).

I did note what MIGHT be a bit of heat damage on R21 of the driver board, but looking at the schematic I don't see how that could account for the specific symptoms in this case. And in any event that resistor would only affect one channel.

One possibility that seems very remote but I wouldn't totally rule out at this point is that the output transformers were manufactured with the wrong color coding on the wires. I say that in part because most (but not all) versions of the Kit 1 for which photos appear on the net have transformers which used a different set of colors for their secondaries than the green-blue-yellow colors of the ones that were supplied to Rebbi. And of course if the colors were mixed up such that the 4 ohm tap is being used, or the speaker connections are being made BETWEEN the 4 ohm and 8 ohm taps, that would easily account for the problem. The tech could probably verify the color coding by measuring resistances between the different possible combinations of the three wires.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al your great what a nice gesture for Rebbi.

Al, certainly second Jwm.

Al,
Thanks for all that meticulous attention and for the kind, positive comments about my build. I hand't worked with a soldering iron in a few years but once I got the cobwebs out I LOVED the building experience and have really caught the DIY bug.
Brian overnighted some tubes and new caps for the Power Supply PCB. The technician has them now and will be working on the amp tomorrow morning. I should know something tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I'm hoping it's something simple.
Yes, you are correct (and very observant, by the way) about the output transformers. The color of the wiring has changed since earlier versions of the kit and I had to ask Brian what the correct colors were. He told me that green is 0 (ground), blue is 4 ohm and yellow is 8 ohm. (I think that the earlier versions had a purple wire for the 8 ohm tap.) I deliberately didn't cut the unused, 4 ohm leads but bundled and shrink-tubed them in case I ever want to run a 4 ohm speaker.
The most challenging aspect of the build was that I was working with the previous version of the Assembly Manual, supplemented by a "beta" version of the latest Manual edition. Most of the design changes in the 2014 version of the Kit 1 have not been radical, although, as you noted, the Filament PCB has changed quite a bit (the whole heat sink configuration is quite different) and things like the lead colors on the OPT's have changed, too. So I corresponded with Brian whenever I had questions and, when I was uncertain at all, I tried to be extra careful not to solder anything until I was totally sure I had it right (although I'd have done that, anyway, given how slowly I tend to work).
By the way, a very pretty, updated manual is almost completed. I offered to send suggestions for the new edition to Brian and he accepted. I told him he could use photos from the blog if any of them are useful. So the bottom line is that future builders of this amp will have VERY nice, clear instructions to follow!
I don't think I mentioned this earlier, but the tech said that the amp wasn't putting out anything close to 8 watts, so there's something very funky going on with the power section. Again, I'm hoping it's simple!