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Akitika GT-108 Stereo Amplifier Kit Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Also exploding capacitors! One of my all time favorites is small exploding caps. Back in the day I have seen a techs face peppered with paper confetti from the cap exploding in his face. Dang when you are working under time pressure in a commercial setting, wild things happen. I do wish some company had some fairly high quality kits for people to get interested in. But the evil smd devices have in all practice killed that off. I know, I'm talking old analog stuff here, but then in the 60's and 70's that was the bee knees!In any case, there is no Heathkit anymore because the tech and the market have moved on. Future geeks are even less likely to have access to DIY kits. When I see the power of contemporary design sim tools, am more envious and not lamenting that they will not be exposed to electric shock, flux fumes or nasty cleaning solvents.
Lol, the cap thing took me back a few decades. Never happened at work, but when the high school shop teacher was out, certain delinquents (not me) would put a cap across the bench supply, crank it up, and walk away. You know the result!
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Ok gentlemen, because I would like to share how much this guy cares about his customers and these products. I reached out to him personally to let him know of the review. Now how many companies would do this? He is USA-based and offers a return and an amazing product:
Email copied: At 3: am CST
Jason,
I'll try to do some tests on 3/20/2024. Right now, such testing is a bit awkward with a "make-do" testing system as my AP system is down. You'll notice the time stamp on this email...the middle of the night...my thought is that ASR might have a defective sample, but at the moment, I need to re-check some data, rather than speculate.
All the best...
Dan
He is trying to get with @amirm to talk with to start conversations. Hopefully, they can get some products that are tested from him.
Email copied: At 3: am CST
Jason,
I'll try to do some tests on 3/20/2024. Right now, such testing is a bit awkward with a "make-do" testing system as my AP system is down. You'll notice the time stamp on this email...the middle of the night...my thought is that ASR might have a defective sample, but at the moment, I need to re-check some data, rather than speculate.
All the best...
Dan
He is trying to get with @amirm to talk with to start conversations. Hopefully, they can get some products that are tested from him.
At the end of the day, I do think this is exactly what we want from a manufacturer.
Can anyone copy this and make it show up for all to see?
Can anyone copy this and make it show up for all to see?
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I built a Sinclair watch once...no brag, just fact!
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
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Great. Dedicated people are getting rare. At this point, I almost want the sample to have been defective, so we can see the results of a properly functioning one as intended by the designer.
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Looks quite neat, actually, even today. There is a refreshing simplicity, like a Bauhaus design.
I'm trying to make that happen.
JSmith
Master Contributor
The only thing vaguely interesting to me at Akitika is his PR-102 preamp -- I'm not sure why considering I'd have to buy it assembled, (my kit building days are over due to fading eyesight). The Schiit Kara is about the same price as the assembled Akitika.
I'd get the remote controlled version but skip the optional phono preamp. I might swap some of the op amps which appear to be OPA2134's.
I'd get the remote controlled version but skip the optional phono preamp. I might swap some of the op amps which appear to be OPA2134's.
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Someone that wants to build a well documented, real kit, or has limited funds, and has found they prefer their sound with some 2nd harmonic spice and do not need loads of power, may get this.
I am founding that objective excellence unfortunatelly is not always the end be all for me, in terms of pure auditory enjoyement, and other people may actually prefer things they conceptually would rather (some types of distortion, slight frequency deviations, etc..)
I am founding that objective excellence unfortunatelly is not always the end be all for me, in terms of pure auditory enjoyement, and other people may actually prefer things they conceptually would rather (some types of distortion, slight frequency deviations, etc..)
teched58
Active Member
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The only thing vaguely interesting to me at Akitika is his PR-102 preamp -- I'm not sure why considering I'd have to buy it assembled, (my kit building days are over due to fading eyesight). The Schiit Kara is about the same price as the assembled Akitika.
I'd get the remote controlled version but skip the optional phono preamp. I might swap some of the op amps which appear to be OPA2134's.
I likewise find the preamp very interesting. However, the Akitika site says it's out of stock. It also says it will be available "in February," but that seems to be from 2022.
Can @JasonC331 comment on whether more will be forthcoming and if so, when?
Isn't it pretty poor performance for the price? Plus all the work? I don't get paying $600+ and then probably several hours of your valuable time for a 70-ish dB SINAD...?
You’re getting Nelson Pass performance at Topping pricing, in other words it’s a bargain.
$600 is assembled. It is $400 as a kit. I'm not sure why anyone would buy a kit assembled since the assembly is the fun.
And there are clearly price advantages of mass production, dirt cheap labor, and very limited warranty of the 'competition' vs US assembly and full support of this. It isn't like the Heathkit days when the competition was being built by people here with full local warranty support.
As has also been shown here the designer is really responsive to questions and troubleshooting.
And as always I get such a kick out of the "Valuable Time" line, as if posting on an audio forum is a good way to spend "valuable time". People only seem to check the value of their time if they are arguing against something that others choose to do.
Most importantly, you build these for enjoyment; if you don't enjoy building things then why on earth would you ever buy something to build?
But at least it is Pass longevity instead of Topping.
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Solder Slinger 24
New Member
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Hello everyone,
New to the site and love amirm's reviews.
Correct me if I'm wrong here and it may have been noted in a earlier post, but this looks like a classic LM3886 design.
New to the site and love amirm's reviews.
Correct me if I'm wrong here and it may have been noted in a earlier post, but this looks like a classic LM3886 design.
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I do not work for the company, just own one of the Z4, @amirm Is there a direct email for Dan to chat with you? I did get some more information from him. It looks like his off-the-shelf samples differ from as-built house specs:
I followed the link, but still couldn't find contact info for Amir...I'm probably being a little blind.
The funniest thing about the review...Amir seems bothered by the flat THD characteristic. He praises its low noise...that's why the THD limit is so flat-ish...the NAD he shows is dominated by noise, that's why its THD is so high at low levels.
GT-108 has very low noise, so its THD doesn't rise at low levels.
His main complaint..
1. He wants more power for the bucks...OK
2. He wants better multi-tone results...OK
Point by point:
ASR 5 Watt measurements were -72 2nd harmonic. My off-the-shelf sample was -83...Not sure why the difference, but it would move us up significantly, making us better than anyone on the zoomed-in chart. What was the source of this unit?
The noise was better than most.
Frequency response was wide and flat, with "of course no load dependency"
Multi-tone was 13.3 bits (fair)
Two-tone Distortion-free range =13 bits (fair)
Channel separation at 75 dB at 1 kHz (fair) Note that this is so high at 75 dB that it could have no bad effect on anything.
Flat distortion--Why? Cause our noise is so low!!!! 0.012% versus 0.003% is probably an old carryover/typo. We agree with the 0.01% characterization.
The amplifier has an "amazing amount of headroom".
Power and pop level is quite acceptable 200 mV worst case, audible, but no concern
It's a very good review...the only thing ASR complains about is low power output for the money. Compared to many amps, this is however a very good value.
I followed the link, but still couldn't find contact info for Amir...I'm probably being a little blind.
The funniest thing about the review...Amir seems bothered by the flat THD characteristic. He praises its low noise...that's why the THD limit is so flat-ish...the NAD he shows is dominated by noise, that's why its THD is so high at low levels.
GT-108 has very low noise, so its THD doesn't rise at low levels.
His main complaint..
1. He wants more power for the bucks...OK
2. He wants better multi-tone results...OK
Point by point:
ASR 5 Watt measurements were -72 2nd harmonic. My off-the-shelf sample was -83...Not sure why the difference, but it would move us up significantly, making us better than anyone on the zoomed-in chart. What was the source of this unit?
The noise was better than most.
Frequency response was wide and flat, with "of course no load dependency"
Multi-tone was 13.3 bits (fair)
Two-tone Distortion-free range =13 bits (fair)
Channel separation at 75 dB at 1 kHz (fair) Note that this is so high at 75 dB that it could have no bad effect on anything.
Flat distortion--Why? Cause our noise is so low!!!! 0.012% versus 0.003% is probably an old carryover/typo. We agree with the 0.01% characterization.
The amplifier has an "amazing amount of headroom".
Power and pop level is quite acceptable 200 mV worst case, audible, but no concern
It's a very good review...the only thing ASR complains about is low power output for the money. Compared to many amps, this is however a very good value.
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