Another cheap tube amp from China

[Kristian]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and as a first post: has anyone tried this one:

6P1 Class A single ended stereo tube amplifier special! on eBay (end time 20-Mar-10 05:33:36 GMT)

Price is Suppo'ish, how about the quality? It has the chinese 6P1 tubes in the power stage, is the russian 6P1P-EV -tube drop in replacement?

[DigitalJunkie]

Ahh! Not more blue LED's under the tubes!

Looks pretty okay for the price.. *shrug*

[tubesteve]

have tested this, costs around 40 euros here in china. no so bad in sound, but all the safety topics.huh..also, beware, the 6P1 is same as 6AQ5, no replacement. power output is less than stated,got 23% THD @ 1KHz, S/N 77dB measured unweighted

[tubesteve]

built quality is as expected for that price, the 2 pcs . 6P1 and one pc 6n2 performe like they are to intended. GND ( PE ) is not connected. have a good life insurance? frequency response is good by my testing @ resistive load. but who has resistive speakers?

[ksporry]

I read on wiki that the 6P1 was electronically the same as the 6AQ5, but the pins are different. The 6P1 has 9 pins whereas the 6AQ5 has only got 7 pins, so no straight swap.
Tubesteve, does that mean that the meng X1 and the yaqin MS-12B are also nearly half price compared to UK prices? maybe I should have waited until I get to Shanghai before buying that stuff...

Since the 6AQ5's are no longer in production (and wouldn't fit anyway), which alternative tubes can the 6P1 be swapped with for comparison?

[quadtech]

Someone posted more details over on AK -

a real $99 chinese tube amp - AudioKarma.org Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums

[Arnulf]

Originally Posted by ksporry

I read on wiki that the 6P1 was electronically the same as the 6AQ5, but the pins are different. The 6P1 has 9 pins whereas the 6AQ5 has only got 7 pins, so no straight swap.

That auction shows 8-pin sockets in the pictures whil;e 6P1 is a noval tube

[rotaspec]

Chinese amps advertised as 10W with 6P1 in PP produces about 6W. Figure on less than 2W out of SE.

[rotaspec]

Originally Posted by Kristian

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and as a first post: has anyone tried this one:

6P1 Class A single ended stereo tube amplifier special! on eBay (end time 20-Mar-10 05:33:36 GMT)

Price is Suppo'ish, how about the quality? It has the chinese 6P1 tubes in the power stage, is the russian 6P1P-EV -tube drop in replacement?

Yes, the Russian 6P1-EV drops in. On my Meng, it makes no difference to the sound quality though, so don't automatically assume an upgrade.

This amp can't really be compared to the Suppo, totally different topologies. The Suppo is 6P15 (SV83) in PP for about 10W or a little more, this one is 6P1 (6AQ5) in SE which (despite the advertised rating) would have no more than 2-3W.
With the Suppo, tube rolling is easy as it's basically a EL84 design, not so with any amp using 6P1 tubes.

Gary

[tubesteve]

as far as i remember the 6P1 SE amp puts out 4.4W/channel at23%THD, measured about 3 weeks ago. most of the harmonice at lower power will be even harmonics, which dont disturb the ear. the amp sounded rather pleasant, missing a bit pressure in bass, although frequency response was good to 20Hz.
what it may cost in UK, no idea. here it sells for 450RMB.
for the 6P1 is no replacement known to me, after modification, EL84 will work inside well.
The circuit diagram is rather simple, nothing new under the hood.
so far i did not much tesing on that amp ( time ) and for more testing i should have components like their transformers etc, which they for a good reason maybe dont send to me.
i have here a collection of amplifieres, the colleection name is: "how not to do amps"...