The full, illustrated, story of the build.

I’m relatively new to this type of electronics building. I have made a Charlize T-Amp, and a modified SI – but these were simply a few low-voltage solder points and a case. SETs have dangerous internal high voltage, and the kit involves stuffing a circuit board with components and rather more scope for errors. The first power-on is not called the “Smoke Test” for nothing. However – nothing ventured, nothing gained. I can read a schematic (from a period in my teens), and own a soldering iron and a multimeter. I already (in the Charlize) have a very good amp, however SETs by all accounts offer a musical transparency and presence that no other amp type can (with limitations of course), and can set you back truly ridiculous sums of money. Decware’s kit falls into my price range, carries reasonable reviews, uses cheap and widely available tubes - time to satisfy my curiosity.

Read the rest of the story with pictures here

We now have two more D.I.Y. tube project kits, the  ZKIT4 and ZKIT5.  The ZKIT4 is a single tube stereo gain stage that can be used as a preamp or an output stage for a CD player or DAC.

The ZKIT5 is an excellent little power supply for the zkit4 and made possible by the new DECWARE EM0705 15ma world voltage power transformer.  It’s that perfect little transformer for a single preamp tube with both 120 and 240 volt primaries, a nice 125-125 volt secondary at 15ma and a 12.6 volt secondary at 0.3A.

The ZKIT5 optionally comes with tube regulation using an OC3 glow discharge tube - talk about removing the grain!

Together the ZKIT4 and ZKIT5 are part for part exactly what we use for the class A triode output stage in our Zen CD player.  However, you could easily make yourself an absolutely killer sounding single tube preamp just as easily.  In fact if you’re no beginner, you already know that by changing the parts values slightly the ZKIT4 could be used as a gain stage in a power amplifier or for that matter be turned into a buffer stage.