Elekit TU-8500DX 12AU7 Pre-Amplifier Kit

This is the 4th TU series kit I’ve built from Elekit. As always it went together beautifully and sounds wonderful. I needed more inputs and a phono stage to go with my TU-8600RVK and I wouldn’t have considered anything else. I did upgrade most of the parts supplied with the kit (TKD volume pot, audionote electrolytic caps, prp resistors, sparkos voltage regulators, amtrans golden black paper and oil caps for the phono stage along with the 2227 opamps, then solen agm silver metalized caps after the tube stage.) The volume pot (2cp-601s took a little engineering to fit it’s a bit bigger than the one supplied but I didn’t want a “bottleneck” in the most important signal position. Worked perfectly with the first power up and is DEAD silent. Still breaking it in and love the fact DYI Audio offered a blue led as to match the TU-8600! Thx! Very Recommended

This is a great kit, and a fun build with decent instructions. What struck me is the cleanliness of the sound even at high volume with a complete inaudibility of hiss. At the normal unity gain setting, you'll notice you'll have to really crank the volume to reach your desired spl, but it's ok, because you have the 3x gain option as well and it maintains its tight, fully-fleshed, focused control on sound reproduction even when pushed past a 2 'o clock setting on the volume dial on normal unity gain setting.

I found it to be extremely transparent if your source, power amp, speakers and placement, cables and interconnects are up to the challenge.

It is neutral, transparent, and very easy to listen to over extended periods and not classically "tubelike", warm or even sterile or clinical for that matter. Try listening to something like a SACD player through it and you will be impressed with its detail retrieval, fleshed out bottom end and airy highs.

Like any kit, there are opportunities to substitute your own parts if you like to experiment with the resulting outcome of sound which I did in an attempt to make it even a little warmer, "tubelike" or vintage HiFi sounding. However, all parts supplied are well-considered and of very high quality. In fact I found it somewhat difficult to source parts of higher quality than what is originally supplied. There is no reason to have to sub anything, really. I can tell you it is rock steady and maintains a very clean, accurate, transparent sound whether you stick with all stock parts or substitute some of your own, much like how Elekit gives you an AMTRANS resistor option. Any way you slice it, it's a great sounding preamp with a clean, robust circuit design and a pretty good phono stage as well with the ability to swap its opamps to change the phono's flavor. I only wish it had one more set of RCA inputs however, so I could simulataneously hook up all my stereo gear at once including an HD radio. Great preamp, I reco...

2nd DIY amps from diyaudio. All seemed easier than the first time. PCB design is beautiful, instruction is clear enough. Very happy to have both preamp and pw amp (amp camp amp) done by myself. Thank you very much for your site, will plan the next shopping here, maybe a tube amp.

Communication prior to my purchase was good and the transaction was easy. This kit is designed and presented with the precision the Japanese are known for. Assembly instructions are very clear and leave nothing to chance. Besides having some experience soldering electronics (14 yrs ago) this was the first kit I've built. I took my time and it worked perfectly on first power up.

So far the burn in is at about 10 - 15 hours and it sounds really good, with the understanding the capacitor upgrades (6x Mundorf) will perform best at around 100 hrs. I'll leave the sound descriptions to the more experienced audiophiles, but suffice it to say everything is clearer, more neutral with stronger bass and sublime mids, especially female vocals. This is with the supplied tubes and op-amps, after burn in is complete I'll swap in Gold Lion tubes and 2227P op amps. I had been using an entry level Parasound pre amp and phono amp, the Elekit TU-8500 sounds noticeably better even with minimal burn in time.

I used Fire Metall Eutectic Solder from the DiyAudio Store and I think it was a factor in a successful build. I needed some good audio grade solder and it was very easy to work with, in particular the rows of resistors and multi pin components. Overall, I am really happy with this acquisition.

This little guy was super fun to build, and it sounds just terrific. I couldn't be happier. Also: hats off to the diyaudio store. I've really enjoyed the products and service. Top shelf all around.

No complaints very good quality good instructions sounds good. I upgraded caps, opamps and tubes sounds much better. Only problem was one of the original opamp was bad.