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Budget Chinese Tube amps - any good?

In the midst of searching for a budget tube amp. Lots of chinese made models keep popping up. The price on these amps are often really low and would give someone like me a chance to try the tube sound for cheap.

Do you guys have any good experiences with them?

Reason I'm asking is that I hear many conflicting experiences online on each amp. Some say their amps are really good, some say they are really bad - each model might have 5 good reviews and 5 bad reviews. I guess this is par for course with audio, where subjectivity is the rule of the game. However, chinese amps tend to have the largest disparity of opinions.

The models I've read up on so far are: Mingda amps, Miniwatt N3, Yaqin amps etc.
milesandcoltrane
meiwan
399 posts
 
I'm sure it varies by brand, just like things built elsewhere. Eastern Electric has a good reputation, as does Opera, and a variety of NA assembled brands designed and built by Chinese owners.
Maybe you could query specific brands you are interested in.

My wife was 'made in China'. She's very high quality, albeit not cheap.
paul_graham
197 posts
 
F the Chinese. Buy American, used if you have to.
sebrof's avatar
sebrof
837 posts
 
12-01-11: Paul_graham
F the Chinese. Buy American, used if you have to.

Paul - What if you're German or something? Still buy American?
pehare's avatar
pehare
835 posts
 
don't do it. a buddy of mine tried one (dared) & it was noisy as hell the whole time & needed a replacement volume control shortly thereafter. for around $1K or less you can find a nice hard-wired tube amp built here. this may piss off some folks but i am trying my best not to contribute to this whole 'going to hell in a chinese handbasket' thing. I'm w/ya Paul....
donjr
1,335 posts
 
The only good budget amps are used amps that weren't budget when they were new. If you want new you're looking at $1700 to get something that won't catch fire while you're at work. You'd be best off at your local salon doing A/B comparisons with tube and solid state. There's nothing better than forming a relationship with your local salon as well. In the long run, you might end up saving yourself a lot of headaches by doing that.
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