Those weird, cheap little Asian-made, odd- brand-name, single-ended vacuum tube amplifiers

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mhardy6647
mhardy6647 Posts: 33,030
edited April 2019 in 2 Channel Audio
Perhaps the best and most comprehensive (not to mention objective) assessments of one of the multitude of odd little Asian (Chinese, in this case) vacuum tube amplifiers I have yet
seen has just been posted at hifihaven.

If any of you are thinking about/curious about what you get for 300 or so US smackers*, I reckon this would be an interesting read.

https://hifihaven.org/index.php?threads/this-isnt-about-cheap-asian-sourced-amps-preamps-but-it-is-about-economics-and-value.4569/page-2

The in-depth stuff starts here:
https://hifihaven.org/index.php?threads/this-isnt-about-cheap-asian-sourced-amps-preamps-but-it-is-about-economics-and-value.4569/page-2#post-94667

qsovc09is9ne.png
Borrowed image taken and posted at the link above by "paulbottlehead"

_____________
* or Samoleums, if you prefer.
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Comments

  • verb
    verb Posts: 10,176
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    Interesting read thus far Mark! Had to smile as the Monoprice amp is becoming renowned! :smile:

    But, not surprising, with regard to the quality, and authenticity, of the components used for those cheap amps.

    Thanks for sharing! :smile:
    Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
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  • SIHAB
    SIHAB Posts: 4,520
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    I stopped reading. caveat emperor :p
    Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears
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  • tonyp063
    tonyp063 Posts: 1,047
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    There's a couple of things to look at.
    Full disclosure. I own one of the older APPJ 2013 & a Massdrop EL34 one.
    They sound surprisingly better than I think they have any right to.
    IMHO:

    You know, going in, that these are *not* serious audio pieces. For whatever value of serious you want.

    You know that the vendors & manufacturers over there respond to trends by being fast, cheap & crufty.

    You're seeing the results of the successes of things that were introduced, with decent quality in manufacture, 5 or so years ago.
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