Coming Soon: Sun Valley SV-Pre1616d Tube Preamp Kit

Coming Soon: Sun Valley SV-Pre1616d

All Tube Line Stage Kit Review

by Steve Graham

Long promised and almost ready for prime time.  A Japanese line stage kit from, would you believe it, Toyota?  It’s true. Toyota, the vehicle manufacturer, also dabbles in tube audio kits.  Sun Valley is distributed in North America by our old friend Victor Kung. https://www.vkmusic.ca/

I snagged this delightfully retro-looking kit from Victor, aka the busiest man in audio, and will be assembling it from the Japanese instructions.  Victor has been too busy during audio show season to do the translation. I’ve had a quick look at the instructions, the part designations are in English and there are many colour pictures, so I shall forge ahead undaunted.  Sharp-eyed tube-o-philes will have noticed that the tube on the right in the picture above is a rectifier. I haven’t heard many tube-rectified preamps, so I’m chomping at the bit to get going. I promise to have it assembled and running well before the end of the year, so, if it proves worthy, this kit can still  be added to your holiday wish lists.     

2019 is has been the year of the tube amp for me.  Starting with the repair and tweaking of Noam’s C.L.E.A.R. 834L, to the N-F-P phono stage, a review of the Finale F-7189 II, building a couple of phono stages for friends and friends of friends, an EL84 DIY project in in the offing for WoS, and now the Sun Valley.  My soldering iron has hardly had a chance to cool down. Great, huh?  

Next year Sun Valley will be releasing the companion phono stage to the preamp above.  So many tubes, so little time.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a Japanese tube lover’s site with many drool-worthy amps. https://tubeaudio.exblog.jp/

Cheers, Steve