Ceriatone Board Kit, is it OK?

[garycs]

I apologize in advance for the newbie question!

I want to build an Express. I am considering Ceriatone parts. Does anyone have an opinion with respect to his parts? Should I buy his board and get the trannies somwhere in the states? Is there a BOM that contains the trannies? Should I start with a clean board and source all of the parts in the states? If so, is there a good layout? I cannot seem to find one. Is there a source for a prepunched chassis in the states?


Thanks:

Gary

[doctord02]

Gary, all the layouts, component stuff, etc is in the files section. Just give it a closer look. If you just wanna take the quickest rout to building an amp, Niks stuff is fine, especially his board kits. If you are the obsessive type you can source the exact correct components - but if you have no experience building amps, then that may not produce any sonic improvement.

Niks transformers are fine. If you want the exact correct iron you want the transformers sold by Moose aka toneslut. Again, read thru the posts and the files, it's all there.

[garycs]

Thanks for the response!, I had read a post that said buying the trannies stateside was preferable, and since shipping from Malaysia is not cheap I thought that maybe it was a better alternative. I have also read that the chinese tubes are terrible. I guess there are as many opinions as ........also some of the posts are relatively old and it appears that he has updated his designs recently so I thought I would ask for a recent opinion.

Gary

[dartanion]

You can't go wrong with Nik's stuff, but you can source parts how ever you want. For shipping purposes, you could buy Nik's kit sans transformers to save on shipping price, then get transformers from Moose or elsewhere.

How much building experience do you have? I ask this as Wrecks are challenging build for experienced builders, so it may not be your best bet for a first build.

[Structo]

Curious as to why the trainwrecks have such a reputation of difficulty?
Is because they tread so close to instability and oscillation?
They sure sound good when done right.
Just looking at a schem or layout they don't look that hard but I'm just asking because I don't know.

[Phil_S]

Curious as to why the trainwrecks have such a reputation of difficulty?
Is because they tread so close to instability and oscillation?
They sure sound good when done right.
Just looking at a schem or layout they don't look that hard but I'm just asking because I don't know.

The intangible aspects of the art of layout seem to be everything in this particular amp. Wires in the wrong place will give you noise and squeal of all sorts. I took a few shortcuts on mine, knowing the result might not be so good. I found out the sound was so shrill -- quite bad. Once I corrected the layout shortcuts, the amp really came alive. I knew exactly what I had done wrong. I was just surprised that it made that much difference. If I didn't have a few build's under my belt, I don't think I could have got a good result with this amp. It takes a knowing eye. I'm still working out the problem I've got with the presence control.

[dartanion]

There is a lot of gain on tap in the preamp like many other amps, but Wrecks lack attenuation between stages, thus you are hitting the PI and power tubes really hard. This much gain can cause an amp to be unstable and any transgression in layout can enhance this instability, but when it works, it's magic.