• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

These Hong Kong amps have me bummed

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Jeb: with all due respect, please refrain from making such outlandish statements like this "or those transformers could be 80% epoxy, the internal wiring could be tin or steel, ect." I have bought, seen and heard several Chinese tube amps, preamps, cdps over the years from Cayin; Ming Da; Xindak; East Sound, Jungson etc and have had a look underneath their lids - all meticulously hard wired and well constructed and NONE that I'm aware of are fake or have 80% epoxy filled transformers.

I have heard the MC-100B amplifier in the pic, it sounds very nice - clear as a bell. As to build quality I would go so far as to say some Chinese products are much better built than those in the West. They have an eye for detail and a strong will to succeed. Afterall, the Chinese were wearing silk and eating out of fine porcelain bowls when we in the West were in mud huts and wearing bear skins!

One day soon "Made in China" will have the good reputation of "Made in Japan", so keep an open mind please.

As to their human rights record, well that's another matter ...

Regards,


Steve M.

PS: And in case you're wondering? I'm Australian and in addition to some Chinese gear also use esoteric gear from Supratek/Bel Canto/Audio Research/Nordost/Koetsu etc.

10 Years ago I was living in Hong Kong and visited the shop that started with these and came friendly with the owner. Some stuff is really top gear that came out of there, but some stuff was also so-so. Only thing to watch out for was that the chassis might me a bit thin and when shipped and rough handled it might bent the chassis (happened when I brougth back a 2 x EL34 PP and stereo amp as luggage). I made a jig and slowly pushed it all back again. Hopefully a bit stronger today. I still kick myslef for not bringing back the cute el84 p-p (stereo) with a solid state power supply, was around 250 NZ those days and weighed about 5.5 kgs (mainly for the output trannies).
 
Ha!

I remember the 60s and 'made in Japan' "7 Transistor" radios that had two transistors totally isolated from the active circuitry!

There was also a town that supposedly had it's name changed to "USA" so it could mark it's products "made in USA", or so I heard in the 70s.

Long ago and not so far away...

Sven

And on the other side of the coin, we have auto manufacturers frying in their own fat for paying too much out to the workers.

There has to be a happy medium where the worker can support his family and people can buy the product in good conscience.




A point I've made a few times.

Remember the absolute JUNK Japan cranked out in the 70's and early 80's? NOW it commands top dollar and is worth every penny!

Every nation has growing pains when they "come of age" in an industrial sense.

:2c:

Cheers!
 
Ex-Moderator
Joined 2011
As a Chinese living in Shanghai, I can tell you that most audiophools here crave vintage western gear from the 20-30's, with WE at the top of their list, which is no different from the Japanese who hip to the idea some 20 years before. The brand-spanking new modern "hi-end" gear in China are typically sold to rich folks to match their interior design in their mansions (not there's anything wrong with that :D) that's why you see these "beautiful" chassis - since it is both for looking and listening ;)

Jaz
 
I live in Hong Kong. A couple of months ago I had a Line Magnetic LM-218IA, which has 2 12AX7's, 2 octals (good for tubes ranging from 6V6 to EL634, to KT88), and 2 845's. It is rated at 22 WRMS/Channel. I had it for the ewuivalent of US$1050 used. New, it retails for the equivalent of US$1350 in Hong Kong.

I can tell you that I see no reason why ppl need to crave for expensive amps from the past era. The LM218IA has good looks, is beautifully P2P wired, hasd decent trsnaformers which gave me 29Hz-22KHz at 1 - 12 watts WRMS according to my simple home run gear consisting of a CDP, a laptop, a mic and a multimetre. Above 15 watts till 21 watts its FR rolls down to 42Hz-18KHz within 3 dB's.

Most of the time, my tests are done with the laptop and the multimetre alone.

Terence
 
I don't know if it has been repeated here but.
There has been quite a history with some of these amps overheating and catching fire.
It happend to one of mine so not just a story!!!:mad:

The power supply of some amps runs as a voltage doubler (for 845etc)
The rectifiers were under spec and the set up is for 230 volts
If line voltage is running high then things are overloaded.
Also the transformers ran very hot.

Other than that whilst working it sounded fantastic!!!!
Warranty, forget it!!!:(
 
I don't know if it has been repeated here but.
There has been quite a history with some of these amps overheating and catching fire.
It happend to one of mine so not just a story!!!:mad:

The power supply of some amps runs as a voltage doubler (for 845etc)
The rectifiers were under spec and the set up is for 230 volts
If line voltage is running high then things are overloaded.
Also the transformers ran very hot.

Other than that whilst working it sounded fantastic!!!!
Warranty, forget it!!!:(

Lucky me.

My 845 was accidentally left on for half a day form morning till evening. I ran that for half a year and sold it on. I didn't sell it on coz it sounded bad but I was so accustomed to the beautiful tone of my Ampex 6973 Monoblocs, that I just couldn't find anything that sounds better than it. I have collected four of them and run them in my daily system.

I'm sorry, let me correct it. The LM218IA costs US$1687 new here. And I don't think it is a good bargain anymore at that price. Even though I thought that my eyes swelled such that I really had to see to believe in its quality with its bueatiful p2p build up, I wasn't sure if the LM218IA could last like my 8b or MC240 or the little 6973 monoblocs. I know many ppl here use Chinese built tube amps, but I wonder if there's any disaster stories with Line Magnetic elsewhere. Not all of them made in my home country are trashy.
 
Last edited:
Ex-Moderator
Joined 2011
Not all of them made in my home country are trashy.

Not suggesting that for a moment, in fact, my comments were directed at those people that buy gear based on looks alone and have no clue about audio in general (but do have a lot money :rolleyes:).

There are many good modern gear produced (especially in HK), I have only seen pictures of them in magazines but they do look great (many of them have the vintage, retro-industrial look that I like).

Anyway, DIY is another great way to save money and learn about tube amp design (which really has not changed that much since tubes were invented).

Jaz
 
There are too many chinese made tube amps and ss amps in the market today but too risky to gamble on buying unless you had tested it .OTOH, most hi-fi companies are going to china for assembly to compete the price else you have hard time selling.

There are quality made products but due to others who just want to make money, so they plague the market(not only in china) with low quality but good looking products. having a good looks, the impression is also good, but in reality its a crap....that's why other reverted in converting and changing parts to improved the quality and use the good looking chassis.
 
Ex-Moderator
Joined 2011
There are too many chinese made tube amps and ss amps in the market today but too risky to gamble on buying unless you had tested it .OTOH, most hi-fi companies are going to china for assembly to compete the price else you have hard time selling.

There are quality made products but due to others who just want to make money, so they plague the market(not only in china) with low quality but good looking products. having a good looks, the impression is also good, but in reality its a crap....that's why other reverted in converting and changing parts to improved the quality and use the good looking chassis.

I agree there's little chance that a typical DIY'er can match the quality of factory-produced chassis - it is simply a matter of economy of scale, but we can hopefully make up for it (well at least we try even if not always successful :eek:) in terms of circuit design and component selection.

Jaz
 
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