DIY do it yourself tube amp kit

Keithmundy
You will find Brian at Audio Note Kits VERY HELPFULL!

Hi Keithmundy,

Sorry to bring this up, but only two of the kits mentioned so far will do your Vandy 5's the least bit of justice - the Velleman K4040 at 90wpc and the Transcendant BEAST at 165 wpc. In fact, the Welborne, Audio Note, other Transcendants, Decware, and Bottlehead amps should never even be considered.

My brother has Vandy 3A Sigs and they are a demanding impedence match. Even though the 5's have a built in 400 watt subwoofer amp, the 3 other drivers are still rated at 87dB w/ an impedence that fluctuates to 4 ohms.

You really want to look for an amplifier in the 75+ wpc range with a stiff power supply to do these speakers any justice. If it was me, I'd go 100+ wpc and there simply aren't many kits in that range.

Hell, the 5's have been known to cause the Audio Research 100.2 to run out of gas on large orchestral works. And that is a serious high-current solid state amp. My brother uses it to run his 3A Sigs.

Keithmundy
Darkmoebius is absolutely correct. Vandersteens and SET amps is not the way to go. I had Vanddersteen 3A Sig with a 100 watt tube mono amp and I ended up selling the Vands, to hard to drive.

thank you both for your input. I new I would need large amp to drive them. Hmmm? I just have this desire to try some tubes amps. I've auditioned the ASL Hurricanes and they did a good job - of course - no kit though. I may end up just buying a pair of Hurricanes and maybe play around with mods. Thanks again for your help.

Keithmundy,

Response Audio does extensive mods on the ASL Hurricanes, though it doubles the price.

If you can get by w/ 100wpc, they also do the same mods on the Monsoons.

Check out the listed changes they make to their amps for ideas.