Eight years now with my Line Magnetic 518IA, zero issues.
Line Magnetic quality
Here we go again…
Hej!
I have had my eyes on Line Magnetic Audio for some time, but a friend of mine says that I should stay away from hi-fi and hi-end made in china because they have bad luck when it comes to quality and that they sound bad.
I tell him that I have heard otherwise and that people really like the sound of the LM amplifiers.
So Line Magnetic owners, what do you say? Is he right or is he wrong?
By the way; has anyone been listening to LM34AI?
72 responses Add your response
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 It’s outdated to say the Chinese are an agrarian economy turned into the initial phases of Industrial Revolution and they are making knockoffs and cheap junk only.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. :)
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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.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) |
@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. :-) |
@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. |
@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. |
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? |
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:
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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. |
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.
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Tone Imports/Johnathan Halpern have high character, which makes alot of difference. Have you played with speaker positioning and output taps? Each amp acts differently and your speakers may need to come away from the wall some more to mitigate what you describe a a veil. If you have only used the 8 ohm taps, the 4 ohms should tighten it up. Also, by its very nature, an EL34 tube will be more bloomy typically than an EL84. Also consider that 50 hours doesn't quite cut it in many cases. If your speakers are bi-wire capable, you might consider plugging your cables into the other set of inputs. Even if they have jumpers. Good luck. |
I’d like to add something here. I bought an early model Line Magnetic Audio 216ia as I had mentioned earlier in the thread. I auditioned the piece at a dealer many years back when he first started carrying the line. We listened to Leben and Audio Research and Line Magnetic audio. I had agreed with my dealer that the 216ia (I ended up buying) sounded right to both of us. My dealer was excited about the brand because he liked the sound, he liked the price point he could offer the line and he told me LM Audio completely agreed to back up the line and fix ANY issues with a customer. Even though they are a Chinese company and as such I thought I would be taking a risk, I bought the amp anyway. I really enjoyed this amp for many listening sessions! Fast forward 3 years and the amp had a problem. It was a power issue and when I brought it back to the dealer he told me he thought it was a transformer and he would send the amp back to an authorized repair center. So he loaned me a very nice LM Audio SET amp and when my amp came back I just paid for one way shipping. I was very pleased because it was fixed just fine and LM Audio honored their promise. |
@willmacc and 2psyop I’ve changed almost everything in my set up (speakers, interconnects, DAC and amp) so it’s kind of hard to say what does what. What I can say is that LM34IA gives you very much for the money. I think it sounds almost as good as my old Tube Technology Unisis Signature (but this is a EL84 amp and I miss the EL84 sound that is a little faster and more glimmering treble). Unfortunately there is a problem with one of the LM:s power sockets that doesn’t grip the pins tightly enought. But if I don’t touch the tube it’s OK. I’ve talked to the dealer so I will get it fixed. But I hate the fragile glossy surface. Urrrgh. The tubes I have installed right now are Tung-Sol EL34B, Mullard ECC82 (NOS) and Electro Harmonix ECC83. I’ve also tried Gold Lion ECC82:s and ECC83, but it sounded a kind of sterile. Maybe they need more than 100 hours to bloom. I really like what I hear. Big and deep soundstage, nice treble, sweet mids and warm bass. I have some problems with the bass in my room, so it’s hard to tell how good/bad the bass really is. |
I bought the Line Magnetic 805ia after having extended listening sessions and at home demo sessions with Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP, McIntosh 5200, Hegel 360 and Naim XS2. It just had a quality that I couldn't put a finger on but I enjoyed the sound coming out of it a lot more than the others. I haven't looked back since. Responds very well to tube rolling as well. I have changed out the preamp tubes with great effect each time - replacing with NOS tubes. I'll be experimenting with changing out the 805 and 300Bs shortly to see if there is a positive effect there. This amp has surprised dealers as well. I brought my amp (painstakingly at 90lbs) to the shops to audition a few speakers and on both occasions, the owners had remarked at how good the amp sounded. Both asked who the dealer of Line Magnetic was because they were interested in seeing if they could demo their product in their own shops. |
@bjesien Yes, I did. But one or more of the Tung-Sol EL34Bs are faulty, so I have to send them back. The Genalex Gold Lion ECC82s and the ECC83 works fine, but they haven't done more than 50 hours so they will change in sound. But I think the sound is a little veiled. I want a more open sound. Maybe it will change when the ECC82s and the ECC83 gets more hours. Or maybe when I get the new set of Tung-Sol EL34Bs. Or maybe some of the other ECC82s and ECC83s I also bought will do the trick. |
OMG I have owned Lamm ML2.1, M1.1, M2.1, Music reference RM200/RM9, CJ and ARC tube amps.. the Line Magnetic 518IA i bought is amazing!!! built quality is crazy good, zero hum, and I'm still running stock tubes on my 37k speakers. I am considering upgrading to the latest 30watt SET 2 chassis amp as my Rockports are pretty hard to drive. The quality of the LM or Auralic are just amazing.. Huge value! |
Simna, Years ago, all Line Magnetic amplifiers were equipped with tubes from Shuguang and although these tubes were cheap and not the best thing in the market, the truth is they sounded really good right out of the box. Usually the advice was (and still is) to replace the input stage tubes first, because these are the ones that impact the most of the sound. I only replaced the small 12AU7 and 12AX7 for Gold Lions and the improvement was noticeable. Nowadays I don't know if they still carry the Shuguangs from factory or if they use other brands. As as for the difference between those two amplifiers - 34 and 88 - I'm afraid I don't know. They belong to the new breed of amplifiers that I haven't experienced yet. |
@migueca Your favorites are out of my budget, but I’ve been looking at the 88AI and wonder what the differences between 88AI and 34AI are. I can use KT88 in both, so what makes the 88AI a better choice if I wanna use KT88 tubes? The 34AI seems to be a better choice if I wanna tune the sound by tube rolling due to the many types of tubes I can use. But maybe there are only a few of the choices that really are interesting? Do you know the brand of the stock tubes in 34IA? |
@ geek101 Try Ssl7 first. It has the most effect . I am happy with Brimar True NOS Gain Tested Brimar England CV1985 / 6SL7GT Vacuum Tube Brown Base | eBay I also have ECC35 recommend by other folks. But it is in my storage. I may try it in 2 weeks to compare it with excellent Brimar. I am also happy with Amperex Sn7 https://www.ebay.com/itm/PAIR-OF-6SN7GTB-AMPEREX-TUBES-NEW-6SN7-NOS-NIB-Vacuum-Tubes-Bugle-Boy/26392... although I have Sylvania Bad Boys which I may try in a month or so. Thomas |
You can't go wrong with Line Magnetic. For the past 7 years I lived near their factory and made some friendships with people related to Line Magnetic, Cayin and other Chinese brands (designers, technicians and dealers). And I must say that they take their products very seriously. Quality - both materials and sonics - is outstanding and long gone are the days when Chinese production was synonymous of crap. Of course there are still many shitty Chinese products, but not at this level. And these two factories alone (LM and Cayin) are assembling fine pretty pieces of gear for many ultra-expensive brands. Along my journey I auditioned almost every product from LM and Cayin (and also Opera Consonance, MingDa, Yaqin and others) and have owned a few Chinese equipments, the most interesting and famous being the huge LM219ia. And although the qualities and attributes of sound are very subjective, one thing for sure is objective: the built quality. So if you enjoy the sound and style of Line Magnetic gear, just go for it with confidence. I think this new model - LM34ia - is replacing the 211. That was a fine entry level amplifier. But my favorites are the big brothers, 518, 508 and 219. I experienced these amplifiers with speakers from Zu Audio, Omega, Dali, Tannoy and ATC, all combos sounding great - preferring the high efficiency speakers though. Just pick a model that fits your budget and taste and you will be satisfied. |
Now, after a little more than 50 hours burning in, I’ve given the LM34IA a serious listening and I’ve made a comparison with my old Tube Technlogy Unisis Signature with EL84 tubes. Differences are; Treble: TT more extended and more open than LM. Mids: LM warmer and nicer than TT Bass: TT tighter and cleaner than LM. LM sounds boomy and too much. But I know the room has a problimatic frequency around 46-48Hz and maybe LM manage to emphasis this. I think it sounds very good for the money, but I really need to get rid of this boominess (is there such a word?). Anyone who knows which brand the stock tubes are and have a suggestion of some tubes that are thighter in the bass? |
The Cayin (aka Zhuhai Spark Electronic Equipment Co) brand gave birth to LM. Legend has it that the two brothers were engineers at Cayin, then struck out on their own. I've been told they source many parts from the same suppliers and have similar build quality. I have an early Cayin integrated, supposedly engineered by the LM brothers, that's now going on 12 years old. It operates as new and is built like a tank. Except for the bias boards, it's all hand-wired with a very tidy layout. It has only high quality parts: Takman, Nichicon, Clarity...and much quieter transformers than found in one of the major American competitors. Zero hum or buzz can be heard through my speakers at idle, only the slightest hiss with ears against the tweeters. My DAC is an LM model and also built like a BSH - again, very high quality parts throughout, no corner cutting. |
