Line Magnetic quality

Stupid troll is stupid.........

Funny... every once in awhile you get these ignorant trolls (invictusidiot) who make comments to incite or inflame others. They are like little children throwing temper tamptrums.

@invictus005 - " Chinese garbage. "
You don't know what you're talking about, plain and simple

@invictus005 epitome of ignorance. 

@Invictus, 

Better built than anything you’re running.

I agree with Line Magnetic being good value.Anyone giving there view should add which speaker is used? I deal through the Singapore dealer 230V and get him to run in a few hours and do any obvious mods before shipping to me.Point to Point wiring is not cheap in any country and parts used are built to a price.You can always make these Amps better with upgrade parts and tubes. Anyone interested in hearing the Best Line Magnetic Tube Horn system they have hired the Big room at this years Guangzhou Show and worth going just to see this.. (China) Guangzhou AV Fair 2019 December 6-8.

Agree with the build quality. I have opened up my LM508IA to make modifications and the point to point wiring is very well done. wires are properly and securely wrapped to the posts before soldering and that makes a good and secure connection. It is not something that is randomly slapped together.

I got a Line Magnetic 845 Premium from Mike Rose at Excel Audio, Newport Beach. I think it came with Shuguang tubes and sounded great driving a pair of Harbeth 30.2 Anniversaries. I swapped the 12ax7s for some NOS 1965 Amperex Bugle Boys. Made it better. I then swapped the 300bs. for a pair of Emission Labs 300bXLS's, much more better! Build quality seems very good, the 2 parts are both very heavy. The power button feels like it may eventually be an issue.

I dropped by Excel today and listened to the new Line Magnetic KT88 integrated driving a pair of Klipsch Heresy 4's. What happened down there in Hope Arkansas? The Heresies sounded great. The LM KT88 is wonderful and a steal at about $3,000. I like it better than their $2,000 EL34 amp, which is no slouch, and their KT150 amp. Reminded me of the Luxman KT88 power amp and Luxman preamp combo. That's good company!

I traded an Audio Research Reference 110 and AR LS28 preamp for the Line Magnetic. I'm glad i did. I think the LM845 Premium sounds better. Huge, 3D sound stage and the mids, the mids boys, they are something beautiful. 

Oh yes, I also listened to the Line Magnetic CD player/DAC, very nice. They have a phono stage which looks like the power supply for an industrial soldering iron (not pretty) but it sounds really good.

Anyway, thumbs up on the LM845 Premium integrated. 

Hi, 
why did you change the 300er tubes and not the 845  output tubes? I own the lm-845 also, and i think about tube rolling, but i would change the 845s, i think.. 


André 

Well, your friend seem not to be up to date, or in other words, he or she is full of crap.
I have bought chinese single ended tube amp that is:

1. Superbly well built, of first class materials
2. Sound fantastic
3. Is super affordable
4. Don't seem to suffer from any bad quality

And I am not alone to have this experience with chinese built tube amps of today.....

I listened to the latest LM 845 integrated driving a pair of O/93s. Truly great sound. I had a chance to purchase a LM-211 from a fellow audiogoner just to play with it driving my Tannoy Sterlings. It delivers 15wpc triode and 30wpc ultralinear. Seems to drive the Tannoys well in either mode. Still playing with it however. 

One thing I am wondering about is the sensitivity. Manual lists it at 200mV which seems very highly sensitive. I am also wondering if the 12au7s are input tubes and the 12ax7s are driver tubes for the amplifier stage and that this integrated has a passive preamp. There is no mention of the gain for either preamp or amp stages. Am I wrong on this?

There is no doubt that these amplifiers are well built and offer great sound at their price point.

@mesch


You might want to reach out to Jonathan Halpern at Tone Audio, he is the US distributor to see if he can quickly answer your questions. He is easy to converse with  - shindo.usa@mac.com.
I will tell you that my LM 518IA has the same stated sensitivity; and in it's case the preamp circuit stays in play even if I use the LM as a power amp with a separate preamp. Not sure why the circuit was designed that way but it is.

@facten Thanks, I will reach out to Tone. Is it possible that the 518 also has a passive preamp stage with all tubes part of the amplifier section? I am interested n the LM brand and will continue to explore this.

Just seems to me if the amplifier portion of an integrated has a sensitivity of 200mV there is no need for a preamp stage providing gain. This would be especially true if using digital sources. 

@facten Thanks, I will reach out to Tone.

Possible that the 518 also has a passive preamp stage with all tubes in the amplifier. My 211 lacks the preamp input. It seems to me that an amplifier having a sensitivity of 200mV would not require, and possibly not run well with, a active preamp that provides gain. Hey, what do I know. :-)

Sorry for the second post, thought I lost it.

https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review/analog-reviews/amplifier-reviews/line-magnetic-part1/
Check out this link. Reviews the LM Gear amps vs each other. Very informative (Read BOTH parts)

‍Spoiler: Would I recommend buying a Line Magnetic product? Not when you are in Germany or Austria.

I don't know how the customer support in the United States is, but my customer journey with the Line Magnetic LM-503PA Mono Vacuum Tube Amps in Vienna is terrible.

In the Summer of 2021, I spent 10k on a pair of Line Magnetic LM-503PA mono vacuum tube amps. This was by far my worst decision in 40 years of buying hi-fi gear.

So far, I have enjoyed listening with the amps for 11 months. But for 5 months, I couldn't enjoy listening with the amps because of defects and ridiculous customer support. As I'm writing this, my Line Magnetic LM-503PA is defective at the distributor for repair for more than four weeks, and Line Magnetic has not even sent the missing spare parts from China to Germany yet. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of my terrible customer experience with a Line Magnetic product.

This is why I wrote a customer report about my journey with the Line Magnetic LM-503PA mono vacuum tube amp. The report is about many customer-unfriendly emails, a dealer who doesn't answers emails at all, the European Line Magnetic distributor holding my amp hostage, and Line Magnetic in China refusing to answer my questions.

https://www.pure-neo.io/writing/my-terrible-customer-journey-with-the-line-magnetic-lm-503pa-mono-vacuum-tube-amps

I echo the above statements. I now own a Willsenton 800i 805, which is more than rumored to be built in the same factory as Line Magnetic. It’s a 100lb beast of an amp with midrange to die for. The pictures do not do it justice. I owned a PL Dialogue HP integrated and it is just as well made (if not better).

It’s outdated to say the Chinese are an agrarian economy turned into the initial phases of Industrial Revolution and they are making knockoffs and cheap junk only.  So much information and technology has passed through in the last 20 years. I also think China has a deep bench of its own audiophiles that drive the market at home as well.

If you have the interest and the funds, I see no material reason not to try out a Line Magnetic. Keep us posted! I live through folks here as I cannot go into bankruptcy buying all that I would like to try out. :)

 

Eight years now with my Line Magnetic 518IA, zero issues.