FYI There is no "Upgraded" or "V2" Willsenton R8


Some have said the R8 had been upgraded so I contacted China hifi.

I just received this email from China Hifi:

 

The R8 tube amplifier has never launched an MKII version, and has kept its original model and performance parameters unchanged. The factory has not made any major adjustments to the performance and circuitry of the R8.

The performance and sound characteristics of the R8 amplifier remain original. The factory will not change the model without public notice. The MKII version circulating on the market is purely misinformation.

We will maintain communication with the factory. If there is indeed a major upgrade or revision of R8 in the future, we will notify you in time. Thank you for your understanding and support. If you still have any questions, you can contact us at any time.

Willsenton Audio Factory and China-hifi-Audio

chedga

The only thing I see is people talking about tube upgrades and a couple mentioning DIY upgrades. Can you site a specific instance?

It seems Willsenton and dealers do not want to admit there were improvements made.

This lady has made a lot of changes to the Mark I R8, just search her videos.

She’s the reason I went with a Muzishare X7 over the R8, because if I ordered the R8 the was no way to find out if it was the improved version.

She talks about a Mark II here, go to around 4:50 minute mark in the video...

 

Seems like it would be pretty easy to prove if they upped the size of the caps. Someone is lying. 

My guess is that no, there is no MkII of the R8. Willsenton is to decide to call an updated model like that, which does not mean that nothing was changed in the R8. As they say:

“The factory has not made any major adjustments to the performance and circuitry of the R8. The performance and sound characteristics of the R8 amplifier remain original.”

From what I know it’s not uncommon to make little changes while a model is in production and that’s what they say: nothing major was changed. And whatever was done does not affect the sound. So there’s no reason to call it MkII. It seems that Willsenton grudginly acknowledges that Skunkie was right with her criticism of the circuitry, made changes accordingly and prefer not to acknowledge her input.