• 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.

do you own a chinese tube integrate? does it.... smell?

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sorry, its a blunt and random question but totally literal. here is my story, bought a chinese el34 integrate several months ago, the thing smelled sharply of 'paint shop' odor, so i had it in a separate room with long signal wires running from behind a closed door. the sound was still exquisite enough to turn me into a tube dedicate, ultimately. but the amp wouldn't keep stinking up that awful toxic smell, so i finally got it partially refunded. it's for this generous service that i refuse to mention the manufacturer's name. now i'm looking for another tube integrate, and would like to know which brand models smell and which doesn't. the kind of smell i'm talking about is usually of the transformer varnish that should have dissipated during assembly but still doesn't after months of continuous use. it smells of paint. and the other smell is.. well, paint on the chassis. again, it should have been dried off before purchase but it doesn't, since it's of poor quality.

why such a fuss over a minor odor, some might say (especially the sellers). but my amp was releasing heavy fumes. it soaked into the fall wear clothes that i had in storage in that room in a duffel bag. when i opened it up yesterday to move them to the dresser, i reeled from the sharp smell. every single one of my clothes were bleached in that paint smell which didn't air out after half a day. i spent rest of that day laundering all my clothes and my girlfriend's. i should bow never to purchase a chinese amp again, but their value is just too great to ignore. diy is a much more hassle for me and not that economic since i'm living in china which means paying half of my project budget on shipping from overseas.

so please let me know, does your chinese amp smell during operation? did it ever from the initial unwrapping? thanks. cheers. :)

Hello All,
It is not so much where it is made it is what it is made from. Who knows what is in there, it could be PCB’s. It likely some kind of VOC. Volatile organic compound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The amplifier probably did not ship with a Material Safety Data Sheet either. Check out coal tar a common bootleg ingredient from China, you will love it. Coal tar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_1_carcinogens
DT
All just for fun!
 
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yup, no rohs regulations in china or any other equivalents no matter how much more lenient. that's why i'm wanting to rely on my nose and you gents', respectably.

however my nose doesn't tell the same story for jolida and yaqin.

the yaqin preamp and amp i auditioned at home several years ago both stunk to high heavens for the several weeks that i had them. i didn't even have to get close to them- it stunk up the whole room.

as for jolida that i sniffed at an audio shop (yes they looked at me funny when i literally sniffed at it), it's only noticeable when you put your nose up against the vent on the transformer casing. but that doesn't mean the fume will only linger in that area.

xindak i got an honest reply from their sales rep on the email. she said that their transformers don't have a chemical smell, only 'soft plastic' smell. that to me is a bit of a head scratcher but doesn't sound appealing enough for a further investigation.
 
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