Well, I'm currently enamoured with a mint condition Cryus 2 + PSX, but despite being quite handy with a soldering iron, I've always found valve amps a bit scarey re voltages and amps - I'm leaning towards building a Pass DIY F5 or a battery powered Gainclone with maybe an Oatley Electronics JAN 6418 pre kit set up as a buffer.
The F5 scores because theres been plenty built, pcb's and matched active device kits are easily sourced.
Battery Gainclone/6418 buffer fits in with a modified Playstation 1002 project - ive already got a late PS running from batteries, sounds worlds better than the stock surply but not quite as good as the stock early model.
My usual front ends are a Marantz CD63KIS or PC-soundcard-flac.
Current speekers are 92db/w/m floorstanders and the Cyrus never gets run above half power - the neighbours need to be able to listen to their music.
your thoughts would be most welcome
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