Tubes Asylum: REVIEW: Diyhifisupply The Ella Amplifier (Tube) by E. Csikos Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

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Model:	The Ella
Category:	Amplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price:	$ 429
Description:	El34 40 Watt PP Kit Integrated Stereo Amplifier - The Ella
Manufacturer URL:	Diyhifisupply
Manufacturer URL:	Diyhifisupply

Review by E. Csikos ( A ) on July 01, 2002 at 01:07:53 IP Address: 213.75.135.76

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Model used:
DIYhifisupply ‘The Ella’ with Valve Art Kt 88, 6n11 and 6n8p tubes. Audio note caps and an Arcotronics cap for the power supply. 4 meters of CCC hookup wire.

How to make a good review? Simply saying it sounds wonderful doesn’t mean anything to readers of a review. Because this amplifier is a kit, this review will also include ordering, assembling, quality, and technical support.

Ordering
The website is easy to navigate and there are sufficient pictures of all kits. There are suggestions for upgrading each kit and their prices. There’s a variety of tubes to choose also. They don’t have a secure server to pay with credit card. The only options are to pay by a bank transfer or the ‘Paypal’ service. This is a service which requires a credit card. First you have to sign up and activate an account which will cost you $ 1,95. After a couple of days you get a code to transfer larger amounts of money. After placing your final order, they will send the kit to your address. For my country (The Netherlands) it took about 7 weeks by surface. Usually it will take 4-6 weeks by surface. Delivery by airpost about one week and by courier 2-4 days. This will cost more money of course. The amplifier arrived well packed and in good condition. The only lack of the site is there are no specs of shipping costs and insurance costs. If you want to know the total costs before you order, you have to mail them. They reply very fast, so it isn’t a real big problem.

Assembling
After unpacking the heavy amplifier (17 kg.) you will notice it’s partly assembled before shipping. Most of the parts are packed inside the amplifier and the main PCB comes with the caps, resistors, tube sockets, etc. pre soldered. So you don’t have to worry about soldering all kind of tiny parts on it. The instruction manual is almost excellent. Due to some minor changes in production it isn’t perfectly up to date. If you have a question about it you can mail them. Most of the time you’ll get an answer in a couple of hours. There’s enough space inside the amplifier to solder easily. The instruction manual is really step by step so you don’t have to be a technician to build it. You only need a soldering iron, solder, hookup wire, a multimeter and some basic tools (screwdrivers etc.) It took me almost a week of building it in my spare time. You could do it in a day and a half, but why should you? Building it in a relaxed pace and take time to learn about what you’re doing is half the fun. When you’re finished assembling and after checking all connections you have to do some measurements before you start listening.

Quality
All parts used are of well known manufactures. The chassis is made of thick steel which has a grey finish. On the front is a nice cherry wooden panel. Tube sockets are all porcelain and all the holes are well drilled in the chassis, so no worries about parts which wont fit. Overall quality is good and the unit also looks great in my opinion.

Technical support
So, how does it sound? Good question. Before I could start listening I had one major problem to solve. There was only a loud hum from the left speaker when I tried to play music. All voltages were all right, so that couldn’t be the problem. Remember: if you buy a kit like I did, and your not a professional technician, every problem seems to be difficult to solve. There isn’t a store which you can walk in and ask for help to fix the problem without paying for it. So you need help from the company which is thousands of miles away from your home. Why would they help you? They sold you an amplifier and they have your money. It’s quite simple: The people who work at DIYhifisupply are willing to help. This company gives you excellent support when you encounter a problem or when having a question. In my case it was a wrong soldered resistor on the main PCB. So again, no worries if you encounter a problem after assembling it.

Sound
Finally I could connect the amp to my cd player and hookup my speakers. My first impression was a bit disappointing. Shrill highs and a lack of bass. This was when I just turned it on for the first time. I decided to let it play for a couple of hours each day until it reached the recommended 50 hours of burn in time. This made a huge difference. The highs were smooth but crisp and clear, no hiss or whatsoever. The mids are perfect, like someone is standing in your living room and is singing for you. Live recordings sound like you’re in the middle of a concert. Soundstage is indeed huge but instruments are also well placed. Detail level is outstanding. A violin sounds like violin and not like an electronic instrument as on solid state amps. There’s a kind of naturalness in this amp. There’s also plenty of power if you like to turn up the volume. My speakers have a sensitivity of 87db at 1w/m and I won’t even dare to turn the volume pot fully clockwise. It’s also a very quiet amplifier, no hum when you put your ear close to the speaker. For me this amp makes music in a perfect way, no more no less. You can play whatever you want. Pop, rock, classic, jazz, etc. everything is possible. You can always fine tune the sound by replacing the tubes for any other kt-88, el34 or 6550.
If your interest is only house/dance music and hardrock I wouldn’t recommend this amplifier. It has no ‘boom’ in the low end and it wouldn’t sound exciting enough. It also wouldn’t reveal it’s true capabilities on detail level with those kinds of music. I also compared it with my current amplifiers. An Arcam A85 and a P85 which were bi-amped to my speakers. Price of this set is about $ 2400 in the Netherlands. I payed $ 711 for the Ella amp including insurance, extra options and shipping costs. The Ella amp sounds better. The Arcam has more power and more low level detail, remote control a lot of options and inputs and you don’t have to built it yourself. But if you want to listen to excellent reproduced music without listening fatigue ness and an empty wallet, The Ella could be your choice.

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Product Weakness:	One input only.
Product Strengths:	Sound quality, price/perfomance, support, easy to tweak, overall product quality, easy to build.

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Arcam A85 + P85
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sony cdp-xa555es cd player
Speakers:	Elac cl-515jet
Cables/Interconnects:	Nordost superflatline gold MKII bi-wire speaker cable and NBS Stingher interlink
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Pop, jazz, classic, dance and rock
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

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