My newly assembled VTA ST70 Kit

[Sunshyne]

Thanks Georges, I don't have a lot of soldering skills either. I learned by making a few solder joints for guitar electronics (pots and caps) before taking this on.

[Steady339]

Chris, Very clean work and nice photos! Good reminder that you don't have to pay big bucks to get a rich, full, modern tube tone when you use DIY kits and mods--congrats!

Roger

[Sunshyne]

Very true Roger, thanks for the compliments. I'm enjoying it's sound as I type. I think Maybe come winter time I'll pair this up with some KEF ls50's if I'm lucky. Hopefully I get my mc275 back from being repaired soon to so I'll have two set ups. I assume I will try some el34's for the vta st70 by then as well. Never tried any of the power tubes yet but have read they have great mids.

[tdelahanty]

Never use solid core wire for this type project. It will break much easier from vibration and is hard to form into a neat harness. This is the best tip I can give for assembling projects like this. To make stranded wire much easier to form and solder, strip the appropriate length of insolation, carefully reform/dress the strands back to their natural "twist", apply a small amount of flux to the wire, put a small amount of solder on the tip of your iron and apply it to the wire. By doing this it is very easy to make a "J" hook to attach to a terminal or simply put dressed wire into a hole on the PWB. Lastly the correct insulation gap between a terminal and end of the wire (stripped insulation) is approximately the width (diameter) of the insulation.

SOLDERING CAN BE FUN !!!

[Sunshyne]

I didn't know that and thanks for the tips. All of the red wire you see around the circuit board towards the center of the chassis was the solid wire and everything else was stranded if I remember correctly. Everything was supplied except the solder and the tools I used. The hard part about the stranded wire was that after it was stripped and twisted, it was to big for all of the strands to fit in the circuit board hole if I remember correctly. That and working around the corner of a full chassis made it a difficult joint to make. I probably tried soldering it 10 times each side before the solder grabbed it well.

[tdelahanty]

Companies spend large sums of money to generate routings (instructions) so product can be produced quickly, efficiently, and most of all error free. It may have been easier to solder wires to the PWB before it was in the chassis. They are numbered so you know where the other end goes. Not all routings are perfect as I suspect the instructions for some kits suffer the same fate.

[Steady339]

Originally Posted by Sunshyne

Very true Roger, thanks for the compliments. I'm enjoying it's sound as I type. I think Maybe come winter time I'll pair this up with some KEF ls50's if I'm lucky. Hopefully I get my mc275 back from being repaired soon to so I'll have two set ups. I assume I will try some el34's for the vta st70 by then as well. Never tried any of the power tubes yet but have read they have great mids.

Chris, as you can see by my avatar, I use EL34s. They have a sweet, warm, and involving mid-range tone. Give them a try--sure to please!

You might also consider some lightly used Paradigm S1s--beryllium tweeters, 90dB, and more bass than the KEF ls50s--sounds outstanding with tubes, I love mine.

Roger

[Sunshyne]

Will do Roger!