Transcendent Sound
Balanced Power kit

What $379 ($349+$30 shipping) buys

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What's in the kit?

 1) Chassis, 1- piece stainless steel top and sides, alu bottom with front and back plates, alu front panel
 2) 1 - Avel Lindberg 1000va transformer with mounting kit (P/N Y236959)
 3) 1 - Pass & Seymour single outlet AC receptacle (P/N 5251-LACC)
 4) 4 - rubber feet
 5) 1 - fuse holder and fuse (8 amp 120V)
 6) 4 - 0.47 mdf, 630V caps
 7) 1 - 15K, 3 watt resistor
 8) 1 - 1A, 1000V diode (1N4007)
 9) 1 - red LED with holder
10) 1- power switch
11) 1 - IEC power cord
12) 1- IEC 120V AC input
13) 1- current limiter (CL-30) 
14)  misc. hardware (screws, nuts, lock washers, ground lug, etc)
15) 2- 5 lug terminal strips
16) solid core wire, 18 and 20 gauge
17) 1- "Power Sentry" metal 6 outlet power strip (15 amp circuit breaker, no surge protection) 
18)  instructions

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Note that the chassis was originally punched to be a pre-amp. 
The AC receptacle hole was later punched into one of the holes for the pre-out jack.

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The kit contained no wire ties. I used my own.

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The bright red wire I used from my supplies. Its a mil spec 16 gauge. That's the largest size that would fit in the component holes. This wire is carrying the AC throughout the chassis. The stock wire included in the kit for this purpose was 18 gauge.

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The kit contained no heat-shrink tubing. As a result the leads to the power switch,
 and the LED could have easily shorted out.

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This was loads of fun to wire and solder. 4 caps and 7 wires, all are attached to a single terminal strip

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How long does it take to build?

It took a fairly lazy afternoon. Things were slowed by less than clear instructions, poor documentation, the need to provide parts from my supplies, and my disbelief at the cost of this product.
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Any issues?

Yeap.............. besides those issues talked about in the pictures.......

1) Materials used were obviously the least expensive available (aka cheap)
2) Stamped alu front panel hadn't been deburred. As a result the edges were very sharp. It was necessary to file and sand the edges prior to assembly.
3) LED needed to be glued in place, the included clamp wasn't adequate to the job. (note that gluing is mentioned in the instructions
4) Assembly instructions were incomplete and at times confusing. How many of you know which lead of an LED is positive? (I do, but for those that don't, the instructions are no help.)
5) if the stainless steel top were any thinner it would be foil.
6) Why not a duplex AC outlet?
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Opinion:

For $250 this would be a reasonable purchase.

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What's next?

We'll modify and upgrade the unit. The goal is to create something more appropriate to what should have been provided given the units original cost.

Click HERE to see the rebuild of this unit