Classic Kits

[Richard]

Should WD offer kits to reproduce, as near as possible, Classic Amplifiers of the past?

[Ianm2]

yes and no, undecided, yes in that it seems a great idea, as there are only failry limited permutations of topologies of amplifiers, and the classic ones have lasted, eg mullard and quad and the gec, and may well give people who are put off by the ages of these chance to own a new version of one.

no in the sense that people may not want a reproduction, they may want the original article.

I used to be indecisive, now I am uncertain....

you must come to the wadfest, Richard

In my opinion NO.

Certainly look at those designs and take the best elements of them (from appearance to circuitry), but try and stick to unique designs.

That is unless we would like WD to be seen as an 'Olde Worlde Reproductions' company...

[NealG]

I'd say no as well.

[alnewall]

No.
As Lord said in my poll.
You can find these designs quite easily on the internet.
Anyway most of them are likely outclassed by modern stuff.
However, I think that a modern kit with a vintage appearance might be nice.

[bikerhifinut]

I voted for a kit like the Leaks.
My own experience of the Stereo20 suggests to me that with decent modern parts, the circuit holds up very well.
Lets remember that we can "voice" our kits to our preference by choice of coupling capacitors in particular, and to a lesser degree with fiddling around with Resistor types.
The main advantage I would hope isthat a modern retro Stereo20 would still have the same high quality of output transformer, but a superior power supply which is the main weakness I feel ofthe original.
But hey we'd be back at the KEL84 kit.
The retro look would be good though, I just love that bronze chassis colour.

[Baggy Trousers]

A bit late to the party as usual but here's my contribution:

Is not the Leak Stereo 20 the same as the Mullard 5/20? So many of the '50s/'60s amplifiers were to some degree cloned from the Mullard 5/10 and 5/20.

Anyway, I think that whilst the Leaks and Quad II originals readily are available at affordable prices, there is little point in replicating these. In my view, there is too much wasted space inside the Leak (stereo) chassis and I'm not familiar with the Radford. In this age of rampant enthusiasm for single-ended stuff (I suspect espoused by those who were not brought up with it), Mr JNTW's offering which started it all post war, would not be well received.

However, I (and I suspect a significant number of others) would be interested in a monoblock version of something like the WAD 6550/Kel34 modelled on the Quad chassis which was and remains an elegant visual design.