"Shortest Way" SW51 Amp Impressions (Simple SET Amp)

Dear friends

The production of amplifiers has been going on for the third year and probably all the respected members of the community who wanted to purchase this amplifier have already purchased it, and it's time to send this amplifier to free swimming.
During the delivery of batches 4 and 4+, I felt that I would face customs and tax problems due to the changed Russian legislation. Our fiscal authorities will be very happy to grab my ass if they find violations on my part. In addition, it is necessary to solve the problem of warranty and routine maintenance, since there are already a lot of amplifiers.
In addition, customs restrictions do not allow me to quickly send a large number of amplifiers at the same time, which of course causes dissatisfaction with the recipients, I understand this completely.
To solve the ongoing problems with shipping and tax authorities, I found a shipping and service in the USA that will process orders from North America, including the USA and Canada, starting from December 1 of this year. Deliveries will be arranged with registration of all taxes and customs duties.
About the price of the amplifier. Almost all the Party 4 and 4+ amplifiers were made from mainly components that I purchased at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 at the old prices. Some missing components were purchased during 2021, and their prices were already several times higher. For new amplifiers, I will have to purchase components already at current prices. For example, high-quality transformer steel has risen in price by 3.5 times, and its delivery by about 1.5 times.

All orders made before November 30 will be processed without changing the conditions, everything will be according to the old agreements.
Orders made to users from North America from December 1 will be processed under the new conditions. The amps will be shipped and serviced in the USA.
This will relieve my hands and I will be able to do other amplifiers, for example SW4, SW9, JLH Ge. Now I spend a lot of time fussing with the registration and sending of parcels.
Of course, I will provide trial samples for testing on the forum, if there is such a wish.
I want to remind you once again that all orders made before November 30 will be processed under the old conditions. Everyone who is waiting for their amplifier does not need to worry.

 

There most certainly is such a wish - thanks for all your efforts @Zampotech!

 

I thought this might be unobtainium due to all the problems with material price and customs and whatnot. Glad to hear I'm wrong.

@Zampotech: for those of us in NA who are interested, would it be preferable for us to just wait for the new service to be established instead of sending in orders now? Also (the most important part), will it still have the cat front plate to remind us not to let ours near it?

 

What is JLH Ge?

 

This link highlight's Zampotech 's project:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/my-project-jlh-69.7433/page-2#post-246633

 

Thanks for the link - fascinating reading!

 

Does anyone know Z’s schedule for the next batch? Not being impatient, I’m in the queue, but I have zero clue when it’s coming. It’s like knowing you’ve got a cool birthday present coming, but you can’t remember when your birthday is!

 

Last batch took 10ish months with the Covid supply chain fun. With Omicron showing up to the party already wasted with a case of whisky in its hands, I would just try to forget about it and have a happy surprise when it shows up.

 

When I submitted a form earlier this month, I got a mail within a couple of days from Zampo's NA contact indicating that he expected to get some in in January or February.

Of course, there are a few things going on that one could imagine causing some delays or difficulties in getting packages from Russia to the US. So obviously nobody should be surprised if that estimate slips. Or any shipping estimate, on anything, going from any place to any other place right now. I'm a little surprised there haven't been more shipping delays on everything...

 

just to have some perspective - for a small parcel I received today it took USPS 10 days to deliver it from LA to Bay area

 

USPS especially seems to vary a lot by how much of a trainwreck your post office is. Mine hasn't been too bad - slower, but not too bad. One neighborhood over, it was bad enough (people not getting their medication delivered for a month bad) to provoke a sustained pressure campaign involving several elected officials to force the postmaster's resignation.

What I'm saying is I'm a bit surprised it hasn't gotten even worse than that...

 

Since people have spent some time with this amp, any tube rolling stories?

I've got some NOS Tungsrams for it, but keep getting drawn back to the stock tubes which are really good. I was running Aeolus pads on my ZMF Aeolus, which are very dark and the stock tubes balanced it out nicely. I've switched to perf suede lately, so might try those Tungsrams since they might be a bit darker.

 

I'm mostly listening on Verite Closed, and like the RFT EF184 best. I've tried a couple of NOS Amperex, Mazda 6F23, and the stock tubes.

 

Hello everyone,

We would like to introduce ourselves as @Zampotech 's distributor and repair center for North American customers. We have received several inquiries regarding order placement, pricing, and product questions recently and would like to address the questions here:

First, to clarify our role, we will be processing + shipping orders for North American customers only. We will also act as a warranty and repair center for North American customers only. For everyone outside of North America, Zampotech will still be the point of contact for all inquiries, including orders and repairs. We, ZampotechNA, are NOT handling any technical product information. All new products, product developments or changes, or technical information will still come directly from Zampotech for all regions.

With regards to new orders, a small batch of approximately 27 SW51+ amplifiers will be shipped from Russia within 2-3 weeks. Once all logistics details are finalized, the new website www.zampotechNA.com will go live and pre-orders can be placed. All pre-ordered amps will be re-inspected for quality control and shipped out and any remaining amplifiers can be ordered directly from the website. All future orders for additional Zampotech products sold in North America [edit: will] be placed on the website as well.

With regards to pricing, as @Zampotech noted above in post #801, the cost of materials and components have increased dramatically in the past several months. Additionally, there are now additional taxes and related fees on both the Russian and North American side that must be addressed. Amongst other reasons, this is primarily due to the changes in legislation as mentioned above and because the shipments are now between two businesses and not two private individuals. And yes, Zampotech is absolutely correct in saying things will not go well for trying to circumvent this. There has also been a drastic 5-8x increase in global shipping costs since the first units were shipped and there have been other increases to overhead costs such as additional insurance or regulatory concerns that are beyond our control. Hence, the expected cost of these SW51+ units will be between $550 and $650USD which will be finalized once the units are received. There will also be a small shipping charge to ship with FedEx that we will subsidize as much as possible.

We look forward to working with Zampotech and his great products.

 

Can you outline which new products are planned and tentative prices?

 

The post you quoted specifically says that only Zampotech will have info on upcoming products. Come on.

 

Yes, like @Merrick said, only the SW51+ is something they distribute for Zampotech and the website will have prices for products as they become available for order.

 

Sweet!! Nice to see this and good luck...great to have more help getting good amps in and some additional product support! Should help more people have tube sound.

 

I wonder why this amp is such a strong combo with HD650. It's really incredible. That sort of magic just isn't there with my Aeolus or Verite, but the amp goes the distance with the HD650.