Just so you all don't feel bad, I just finished building a pair of these, went to test the second one and the right channel has about 1/2 the volume of the left. I was SUPER careful building these, I built two of them and the other one works perfect. I thought it was maybe a weak/bad new tube, but swapping them from the other working one didn't fix it. No idea other than maybe a bad new cap on the cathode bypass that would do something like this... It's late, I honestly don't feel up for diagnosing this right now, or really dealing with it at all. I thought it was ready to burn in and box up for sale. :( This crap happens to everyone!

I know this took forever, but I uploaded a BOM for this amp this morning, as well as updated schematics with a few small changes, mainly increasing the output tube cathode resistor to 220uf. https://www.skunkiedesigns.com/6bm8-amp

I think this amp might kick my butt lol. The main issue is, besides the distortion, it has no low end. Measuring the turns ratio in the OT, it's 50% which suspiciously is what it would be if it was a push pull OT. I'm trying to think about what else could do this but the coupling caps and resistors all seem reasonable and shouldn't be blocking the low frequencies. I'm starting to think these OT are just garbage...

I'll start this off with some info about me. First off, "Skunkie" is a nickname I got from a video game I play and it just kinda stuck with a few of my close friends. Using it as my branding was a silly joke at first, but once again it has stuck! I've been interested in electronics and especially audio from when I was a child. I got a Heathkit Jr lab as a Christmas gift and spent untold hours playing and learning on it. As I got older, I was into HiFi gear, loved going to the Heathkit store, Radio Shack etc. and just looking around. Sadly there is no big DIY companies like those that existed back then. My career for decades was involved with automotive related electronics, which combined my passion for electronics in a field I was able to make a living in. I retired a few years ago and given my free time, I was able to dive back into DIY and doing stuff that I love, mainly working with hands. I learned a lot about tube gear from reading books, reading online and watching YT videos, and am excited to be learning something new. Like many of you, this is just a hobby for now and I learn new stuff everyday. I think my passion is as much about learning as it is about what we are actually working on here, and I want to share that learning experience with others. This could turn into some sort of DIY company, but it must always stay fun :)

This is a spot for people to introduce themselves to the other members Lets all be friendly :)

Hi everyone, I live in the US and am looking for options on output transformers that are readily available outside of the normal Hammond/Edcor ones? Love to hear about any others you really like.

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