Modify Upgrade VALVE TUBE pre amplifiers pre amp DIY

DIY Audiophile Series: How to Modify & Upgrade Valve (Tube) Preamplifiers

This auction is for a brand new DVD set (approx. 2 hours and 40 minutes!), a video do-it-yourself workshop, produced and recorded in Australia by ValveMark founders. PAL or NTSC standard available, no region restrictions (region free).

We have sold our DVDs in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Israel, Luxembourg, Russia, Lithuania, Croatia, Serbia, USA, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Germany, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Portugal, France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Philippines, Hong Kong, Greece, Poland, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, Turkey, South Korea, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Chile, Netherlands, Malaysia, Singapore ...

Please browse through our ebay store for more DIY resources, DVD programs, collections of tube circuits and transformer winding diagrams.

How to buy a cheap Chinese-made valve (tube) preamplifier and modify it (upgrade it) so it sounds like an audiophile amp five-ten times the price you've paid! Instead of buying an expensive imported "brand name" amps made in USA, UK or elsewhere, save thousands of dollars by modifying and fine-tuning a budget Chinese preamp and turn it into a sonic bliss!

Any preamplifier can be improved, some significantly! Of course, this knowledge will help you improve ANY PREAMPLIFIER, not just cheap Chinese ones.

Save a fortune by buying an inexpensive valve (tube) preamplifier and improving its performance! We purchased three different tube preamps on e-bay: Music Angel and Xiang Sheng (made in China) and Audio Symphonies (made in Hong Kong). For a small financial investment of a few hundred dollars and one day of your time, you could end up with a preamp that sounds as good as audiophile preamps in the $2,000 - $4,000 price range. Then, we scrutinised the preamps, measured their performance and performed extensive listening tests.

We identified many problems and issues. One preamp wasn't even grounded (or earthed), making it illegal and deadly dangerous. Two preamps were made for 220 V mains so all voltages were too high on Australia's nominally 240V mains, but in reality up to 248 V measured voltage! Abnormaly high heating voltage would shorten the life of all tubes - an expensive fault! One had a very narrow frequency range, so high frequencies were not reproduced at all! We suspect it was a kit, did not look professionally (factory) made.

Then we identified all the necessary upgrades and improvements and performed them in front of the camera for you, so you can see how it's done and why!

Learn:

We give you their circuits (schematics) and sound-improving ideas, we show you tips and tricks for saving your money and your sanity.

Just upgrading the tubes (valves) and some capacitors will NOT get you anywhere, you will just be wasting your money for perhaps a 5% improvement in the sound. If the preamplifier design or built is not optimised, tube rolling is ineffective. Serious issues have to be rectified first, if any significant sonic improvement was to be achieved.

Apart from all the action filmed on DVDs, this program comes with an A4-sized manual printed in full color! Schematics, close-up shots of important details, the photos of the flip-charts used in the program. This DVD workshop is a "must have" for all serious audiophiles and DIY constructors and tweakers who want to improve their existing preamplifier (you can apply these principles to improving any preamplifier!)

The information revealed in this video program is not available in a visual format - finally you can see how it's done and hear the commentary while each operation is being performed. Reading about something is one thing, and seeing an expert do it in front of you (and explain how and why) is something completely different!

Thank you for your interest. We wish you every success with your DIY project and your tweaking efforts. Please let us know of your achievements and/or any difficulties your faced on your quest for good sound. If we can be of any assistance, e-mail us anytime! Dr Bob

NOTE #1: Due to the nature of this product, no returns will be accepted (if you change your mind or if the program is not what you expected) but faulty discs will be promptly replaced at our expense.

NOTE #2: Australian buyers can pay by PayPal, bank or personal cheque, postal money order or cash on pickup. International buyers PayPal only!

REGARDING CHEPSKATES AND LOW-BALLERS:

I have been receiving low-ball offers on some of our DVD programs (those with a "Best offer" option), $12, $40 and so on. These are insulting. Try making such offers to a plummer, car dealer or your doctor or dentist! Some people even commented on internet forums that $100+ for 3 or 4 DVDs is too expensive. Maybe they are too cheap ...

Here is how I see it:

1. These DVD programs are the only ones of this kind in the world, unique. Therefore no price is too high, since you have no other option - you cannot buy a competing from anybody else! I think that AU$109 or AU$119 per set is actually too cheap! That is the cost of a mediocre 3-course dinner and drinks for one in an ordinary restaurant in Australia!

2. You are not getting just a DVD set but a full color-laser printed book to go with it, and with some programs, a colour laminated sign.

3. Each of our DVD programs took months to script, film and edit. Booklets took weeks to design, edit, print and bind. The investment in filming equipment only was more than $3,000, not counting computers, professional video editing software, multiple disk burners, colour laser and inkjet printers and so on. The there is a high investment in amplifiers fetured, test & measuring equipment, parts and components and the like. All those expenses have to be costed and recouped from the modest price of our DVD workshops.

4. Ultimately, you are not buying DVDs, you are buying knowledge! This knowledge comes from more than 80 years of combined professional experience in physics, tube and solid-state electronics, audio manufacturing & retailing, and teaching and training business (Dr Bob since 1950's and Igor since 1980's). 

5. This is how I make my living - selling these DVD programs is my only source of income. Igor and Bob provide their assistance and their valuable time for free! I cannot wish for a better husband or nicer father-in-law! 

6. Although ongoing technical support and advice is, stricctly speaking, NOT included in the cost of a program, Igor and Bob are happy to answer any reasonable question you may have, free of charge. They cannot spend two hours guiding you through your DIY project for free, but a question or two that take 10-15 minutes to answer via email, we are happy to oblige. That is additional value you get for the modest price of our DVD programs.

7. Most importantly, I have never had one unhappy or unsatisfied buyer, someone who wanted to return a DVD program he or she bought. That tells you something. We ship on the same day of the payment and you get your stuff within 3 days in Australia and within 8-14 days world-wide. Although airmail (untraceable) postage is at buyer's risk, in a few very rare cases where the package does not arrive, we replace it at our expense - we don't want undesrved negative feedback, we want you to be happy! In other words, I try to make your experience with us a real pleasure.

So, if you still think our DVD prorgams are not the best value-for-money around, feel free to spend hundreds of hours searching the web for this information (most of it you'll never find since it isn't there), and then a few more hundreds of hours trying to make sense out if it all, reconcilling often contradictory claims and false information from amateurs! Good luck!

Thank you for your trust and your purchases! Best wishes, Elena