Hi M,

I am listening mostly to the recent D3a, 300B amps.( note to Damir I tired 6688 and E180 and the d3a is the clear winner in my application . Will try the C3~ if I come across any )

Next up is a P-P amp 6a5’s (in the 2A3 family). I had almost decided to go with Douglas’s Galahad front end, and that is the fallback plan, if this doesn’t work out.

But I got to thinking, I like my Aikido line stage. So with a bit more gain… then I acquired a set of transformer phase spliters. Well we’ll see.

As to chassie, I love a good found object. Or if I have really settled on something, then it’s time to move it into a finished form but for me this rarely happens. I have a very nice set of wood boxes (found ) that the DRD45 will move into one day. In the mean time I use cakepans as a half way between naked breadboard and finish amp.

They cost $6, are very easy to cut/drill, keep the HT mostly under and if you use a little care, look somewhat respectable. When faced with $110 of nice chassie, you have to measure to the last mm. With a found object, lay it down and drill it, if you screw up, well it’s off to Hellmart with another $6.

I find that the separating the "let’s be real careful with the inlay" allows me to do a better design and layout.

It’s late I will get to your other questions later…John