Ebay-Chinese Tube amps?!

c_corie

There are tons, apparently sold directly from China. Any brands/sellers to stay away from, or any that offer better prices/quality/service/english...

marvda1

yaqin amps from the guy in canada.

mister pig

Buying tube gear out of China is an exercise in risk management. Going directly to China will give you the lowest cost, but shipping is going to add to the price substantially, especially for a single item. I know a couple of people who bought the Music Angel amplifiers, and the manufacturing on them was pretty sketchy. Couple this with the fact that you get basically no warranty, are you going to foot the shipping cost back to China and the return to you? It is a risk.

I have seen some of these amps do some pretty misleading things. Some companies will put large transformer covers over really cheap iron, so you get the appearance of quality output iron. I saw one Shuguang amp use KT88 for output tubes, and only get 30 WPC RMS out of it, 60 WPC music power. Now the Quicksilver Silver Mono's I owned at one time got 95 WPC out of a pair of KT 88, but the power supply caps were rated at 600V, the one in the Shuguang were 350V. So you can guess that the power supply was no where near as robust as the Quicksilver. Iron is what costs money in tube amps, output and power supply. This is where the Chinese amps skimp at. even though they make the rest of the stuff look very nice.

If you are going to buy a Chinese amp, do it from a North American importer and pay a bit more. He gets better shipping costs, is supposed to honour a warranty, and perhaps you get a return period if not satisfied. Personally, if I were shopping for less expensive tube power, I would go to the used market rather than a low end Chinese amp. But that is just my opinion. But there are good Chinese manufacturers out there too, like ASL, which is imported by Divertech. But they are not bargain basement cheap.

Regards
Mister Pig

mhardy6647

I would see buying an inexpensive but fancy vacuum tube amp featureing "all the right stuff" from China via eBAY at a bargain price akin in principle to buying a Chinese-made Lexus automobile clone under the same circumstances.

By and large, one gets what one pays for.

george daniel

well said sir! Bravo

c_corie

So anything similar in quality to the Primaluna stuff, but not quite that level of price? Or is the safest/best quality bet? Any other Chinese made brands established here...Jolida sketches me out because they have 2 very vague websites.

polkfarmboy

Yaqin all the way and jolida

outlander

Man, don’t send your money to China. There are plenty of tube amps manufactured in the states that can be bought used for reasonable money that are much better built.
O

zingo

Grant Fidelity

Dennis Gardner

ASL, Jolida, Dared, Yaquin and Prima Luna amps all offer North American distribution that makes the price difference worth the $$$. Some of them have been around the states for over a decade, with a decent following.

cnh

Dennis Gardner wrote: »

ASL, Jolida, Dared, Yaquin and Prima Luna amps all offer North American distribution that makes the price difference worth the $$$. Some of them have been around the states for over a decade, with a decent following.

Have to agree here, seeing as I run some. Any of the above are decent if you can get them legit and don't pay bargain basement prices! Discounted yes. But no rock bottom. My Jolida below (knock on wood) and the CDP have been running flawlessly for about a year and a half or so! Even survived some "stupidity" on my part when I was **** around, accidentally loosened one of the speaker wires and sent the amp into the "protection" mode. Didn't blow anything though. Bounced right back.

On the other hand, having a lot of experience in the PRC itself, there are tons of "fake" products of the kind described by Mr. Pig. My Jolida has those metal coverings he speaks of but there are SUBSTANTIAL transformers under them in a 50 lbs unit. I've seen the construction first hand in China at various phases.

Certainly, mhardy's warning is to be heeded as well!

cnh

markmarc

I agree with what MrPig and others have said. If you want PRC tube gear for a budget price Grant Fidelity is a smart way to go. Ian deals with all warranty issues directly. Another excellent way to go on a tight budget is Vista Audio, the gear is manufactured in Serbia.

marvda1

i think grant fidelity is no longer offering a warranty on their heavy equipment because of ian's illness. i could be wrong.

organ

Like many have already mentioned, it can be risky. I would check the seller's feedback and really look into what you're buying. Buying from a North American distributor will cost you more but if you need to exchange a unit, you won't be waiting too long.
I only have experience with two Chinese brands and they're very positive. First one would be ASL and the other is Original. I've used about half a dozen ASL gear and never had a problem with any of them. Excellent quality and superb sound. I purchased all my ASL gear from a local dealer.

The other brand, Original, I purchased directly from China through Ebay. It's a tube cd player. Before ordering it on Ebay, I looked at the North American sellers and the cheapest unit I was able to find was from a US dealer that was asking just a little over $1k. Canadian dealers were asking $1200-$1500. I took the risk and bought directly from China for under $500. I payed a little extra for air shipping. They offered air or sea (cheaper for sea). It arrived in one week.

I bought it to replace a NAD C541. The Original sounded much better. A few years after, I decided to try out a Rega Apollo. I enjoyed the sound of both but when I needed cash and had to sell one, I sold the Rega. I bought the Original back in 2006 and I'm still using it in my main rig. It's the warmest and most analog sounding cdp I've heard to date (IMHO of couse).
It's built like a tank and the parts are high quality.

My dealer does consignment and one customer brought in an Original cdp (different model than mine). He told me the sound quality amazed him. It was his first time with the brand and didn't think it was going to sound that good.

Here's my original post of it back in 06. You can see the build quality on the pics I posted. http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?40886-Got-my-Original-CD-A8T&

Just thought I'd share my experience buying Chinese gear through Ebay. Hope this helps.

CSM41

Dennis Gardner wrote: »

ASL, Jolida, Dared, Yaquin and Prima Luna amps all offer North American distribution that makes the price difference worth the $$$. Some of them have been around the states for over a decade, with a decent following.

Don't forget Cayin and Line Magnetic! High build quality, good iron, point to point wiring.