Mr. Liang audio amplifiers

I looked very closely at buying one of these maybe a year ago. It was a KT88 I think, one with 3 round cans for the transformers.

I wrote off through the feedback on ebay to a bunch of owners, all were happy, but then I read somewhere (maybe here) that the power transformers were inclined to die on these. So in the end I left it. If you do buy, I'd say you'd want to be prepared to work on it a bit and forget about any kind of warranty.

Fran

Cheap PP EL84 amp

I bought a PP EL84 valve amp from one of the Ebay stores. It is still working even though I seldom use it.

I bought it because I want to modify it and maybe even rebuild it.

If you buy one of these cheap amp,

1. Do not expect it would sound as good as the top end valve amp. It is value for money and nothing more. It needs work on it.

2. Be prepared to work on it in case it fails.

3. Many people who bought it modified it and as a result it sounds much better than the original. Basically you want the hard to get components cheaply like o/p transformers and chasis cheaply and also reduce the time spent on running around getting these components.

hope these helps...in making your decision.

On every one of the chinese Amps I've seen the mains transformer gets HOT. So far not one has actually died

My (limited) experience with SET types has been less than persuasive. An earlier push-pull one I had sounded lovely. The Chinese wanna save money too always thats going to be in the transformers.

Incidentally, If you do go ahead. its probably worth treating it like you built it. i.e when it arrives check for wiring errors before plugging it in. Then check the bias / HT and so on. Its always a case of buyer beware.

Standard practice when buying electrical goods in China is to try before you leave the shop - to make sure it works! The vendor is quite prepared when it doesn't - they just get another one from stores.

I'm not having a go at Chinese manufacturers (well not much, you get more than what you pay for after all) The more well known makers (Yarland, G&W, Mingda etc) make some very nice toys.

If you are uneasy with the prospect of splashing out independently try www.ornec.com I've never used them but they have an office in the UK so there may be some protection.

Andy

Andrew,

Checking every electrical goods that are manufatured in China is VERY CONSERVATIVE indeed.

Australia and US import million(could be close to billion) of dollars worth of electrical goods from China every year I don't think very buyer checks their goods before taking their product home!!!

The quality of goods are improving everyday. The labour costs is low and the price of components are similar everywhere, if it(amp) is very cheap then it has to come from compromising by using cheap components.

Chances are the amp will be pretty OK. The thing is that you won't know until you get it! However, even if it isn't the nest int he world it'll probably respond very well to a bit of tweaking here and there.

My story is similar with lower stakes. I bought a PP amp with 6N1 and 6P1 tubes and had hum in it. Grounding was a big suspect, but I reckon now the hum is due to poor caps in the power supply (voltage doubler and insufficient smoothing/filtering) and maybe changing to DC heaters too. However I only paid €140 incl shipping for it. It was probably worth it for parts only and I wanted it as a an introduction to building/making a valve amp. As such its been a cheap set of lessons.

Fran

ttan98 said:

Andrew,

Checking every electrical goods that are manufatured in China is VERY CONSERVATIVE indeed.

Australia and US import million(could be close to billion) of dollars worth of electrical goods from China every year I don't think very buyer checks their goods before taking their product home!!!

The quality of goods are improving everyday. The labour costs is low and the price of components are similar everywhere, if it(amp) is very cheap then it has to come from compromising by using cheap components.

Click to expand...

Without getting into the politics, if you buy from China as an individual my advice is; "be careful". Of course my Ipod, my laptop, my printer, my mobile phone were all made in China (its a trend - keeps me employed at the moment) - its probably billions of $

Equally, if I go to the Shenzhen Walmart they don't let you leave with your purchase until you've checked it (now that IS customer service) Same if you go to any of the hi-fi shops but they serve you tea and everything

So Kronzilla - The amp WILL absolutely be hand made (the labour rate is shocking - you dont automate) I know from personal experience that the QC can be variable. But its probably checked in the production facility so instant smoke is extremely unlikely.

You might actually be surprised at the component quality too (not keen on the tubes though - sorry) It will pay you to check bias the few I've had the chance to hack at have run the tubes hard.

For sure you wont get better value - especially if you want to tweak

let us all know how you get on - I'll be next in line if its a good deal I fancy a KT88 model

Andy

Mr Liang amplifiers

Hi Kronzilla,
I have one of the LS 845-1 amps in at the moment which has suffered a short circuit OP transformer primary to secondary. I quoted the customer a price which was higher than the original cost (incl carriage) due to the price of replacement Sowter txs and some other aesthetic metal work required to make it look as good as the originals. needless to say the customer bought another one and I offered him a deal on his old one
The amp is very good indeed, valve line up being 6J4P (6SJ7) input, 6P3P (5881) triode connected as a cathode follower driver, and 845 output running at 90mA into 5K primary OPTx. 240Vac primary toroidal transformers built like brick *********, over engineered stainless and ali chassis parts, triple rectifiers in parallel for the 845 heaters, HT delay cct, square wave response with the Sowter tx has to be seen to be believed, beautiful.
Needs a few minor mods, chassis not earthed to mains (easily done!) a bit of star earth wiring plus 10R//0.1µF earth lift etc.
For about £250 plus about £200 carriage I think it is a very good buy and I don't think you will be disappointed even with the original OPTxs

John Caswell

Products that need DIY interventions only to be safe for starters I perceive as bad kits. There should be legislation against importing them.

Let's not legislate anything of the sort.

Things like the EU's rules on binding posts, a good example of very looney legislation, are just plain wacky.

Who has ever been hurt by binding posts or the power coming out of an audio amplifier?? Who? What fire has been started by an audio amplifier's binding posts??

The dopey no-lead solder rules are yet another example.
How about just a good recycling and reclaimation law?
Now there's an idea.

Ask urself what the ratio of lead in the environment is between one automobile battery and HOW MANY consumer items?? I'd give odds that it's something on the order of 1:10,000. Just guessing.

Some people it seems just like to make rules, rules, rules, rules.

_-_-bear

A 845 KV B+ amp without safety earth offered to the general public is another story IMHO.

bear said:

Let's not legislate anything of the sort.

Things like the EU's rules on binding posts, a good example of very looney legislation, are just plain wacky.

Who has ever been hurt by binding posts or the power coming out of an audio amplifier?? Who? What fire has been started by an audio amplifier's binding posts??

The dopey no-lead solder rules are yet another example.
How about just a good recycling and reclaimation law?
Now there's an idea.

Ask urself what the ratio of lead in the environment is between one automobile battery and HOW MANY consumer items?? I'd give odds that it's something on the order of 1:10,000. Just guessing.

Some people it seems just like to make rules, rules, rules, rules.

_-_-bear

Click to expand...

While I agree on the sometimes ridiculous overregulation in Europe I could give you an example of a country that does not give **** about environmental issues and is alone responsible for one third of the worlds air pollution. Needless to say that this particular country does not sign the Kyoto treaty as well. It is a pity all the world citizens have to breathe that polluted air and at the same time most of them have to adhere to paying for catalyst exhausts, smoke particle filters on Diesel cars etc. This seems unfair, the people that have rules for environmental issues have to pay whil the heavy polluters don't pay a dime. So living in a region with a lot of rules can be frustrating as environmental friendly behaviour can feel like carrying water to the sea. It should not prevent us from doing so however.

I sometimes wonder what is better, overregulation or underregulation ? Overregulation is difficult now and then but the environment, safety etc. get better because of it and it creates new markets too so it is not only invented to drive us mad

Banning Beryllium was a very good thing for instance, just as banning asbestos was. I am glad a lot of rules were invented for those substances.

A nice read on consciousness of air pollution:

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/4488_cleanerairamerica.pdf

Mr Liang 845 amplifier

Hi Kronzilla

I just bought the very same amplifier as yourself, the thread here trails off.

Did the item arrive ok, what were your feelings on the thing as a whole. How does it sound? Did you do any modifications? The link that you posted i had found did you say you got the 300B version?

It was yesterday when i read the post, i got the other version with 6p3p (6L6, 5881)? the other valve if you did not know already is 6J4P which is equiv to 6SJ7 similar to EF37 i think.

If you got the same version as me then if you check out the other circuit then the obvious upgrade is to the 300B, none of the components are changed in the circuit except for the addition of the two resistors on the heaters and bridge rectifier and cap for the heaters, the windings are already there on the transformer.

It is a fairly simple looking circuit as well, i think i just attached the 300B version circuit diagram.

i will of course be adding the 10R and 0.1uf 250v AC ground lift attached to the chassis and back to star earth, for safetys sake.

i run the duncan amps power supply modeler on the 845 ht supply it is a bit wobbly on start up but after 2 seconds flattens out to about 1KV, this wobble should be covered by the ht delay, i can not read the chinese so i can not tell you how long the delay is but i suspect it does say.

Now for my reasonings on why i bought this one ebay rather than the 2A3/300B option which i could have got for £100 less, i paid £300 for plus £198 for 2-3 day airmail delivery. The main reason i went for it was that i read some other posts on this forum or another that said many of these circuits were over biased and they had issues with overheating.

Now this little beauty has user adjustable bias, which means you can run the tube as hard as you like i think i will be setting it to about 80mA should help to protect the output tubes, and not to over run those toroidal transformers. I have read about issues of the transfomers going open circuit but given that i have the circuit then that should not be a problem, you can even get replacement output transformers for $60us at the minute that is all of £30 but would probably be better getting these just as a substitute should the thing go wrong and then getting some transformers form Sowter in the UK.

But to be really fair for what i paid here, it can only be considered a bargain, the build quality looks fine, you could not buy any more than a pair of output transformers for that money here, re-valving would come in at about £200 in the uk, not bad, but i will go to the US sites for tube much cheaper than here even with shipping.

At the moment i using my Vortexion CBL6H reel to reel which has 3.5Watt single ended EL84 tubes in the output, sounds great too, the speakers are dynastatics, uses Richard Allan 12" bass/mid and shackman electrostatic bit of an odd load but sounds good, very easy to drive, 3.5 watts goes a long long long way, hence the reasoning not to over run the 845 tubes, i do not need to but there will be a sweet spot with them too.

Will keep you all posted on how it sounds but to be fair i think i can only be very happy with this purchase given it's cost and what it actually would have cost had i built it myself and i am pretty sure at 41 kgs that it qualifies as a boatanchor?

see you
steve in the uk

Welcome to the forum, Steve. I think that to qualify as a "boatanchor" said item has to be all but useless as well as heavy.

PS Please use the "shift" key when appropriate - uncapitalised "i" looks nasty and it's embarrassing when Belgians tick us off for writing our own language badly.

Mr Liang 845 amplifier another circuit

Hi Mr Moderator

I will consider myself well and truly told off, in future I will try to make sure I do not make the same mistake again, after we have the Belgians to thank for Moules et Frites and a nice cold beer with lots of bread, just done lunch here guys...lol.

I can see that the circuit diagram has caused a little interest and I am sure I am not the only one who has bought one of these amps, the official website for Mr Liang is a nightmare, I saved to favs folder and it does not not load at all.

Well got to run I have a lecture at University in less than hour, thank goodness it is only a 10 minute walk to campus from my house but here is the the circuit diagram for the Mr Liang 845 that I bought.

Take care guys
Steve in the U.K.

Hello Steve, I'm not sure about the Moules et Frites but I'm first in line to thank the Belgians for all their amazing beers. Enjoy your lecture.