Budget Chinese Tube amps - any good?

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?

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....

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.

I actually was the importer for one of the Chinese brands mentioned above for several years. Obviously, there are a lot of stories to be told about that.

In general, I would say that if you are going to buy one Chinese high-end audio product, it would likely best be a low cost tube amplifier. In my opinion, as soon as you hit midlevel, you're far better off buying something made elsewhere. The poor resale of Chinese components is reflective, among other things, of the ZERO pride of ownership that comes with the territory.

As I currently own both products, I'll echo the Dynaco and Quicksilver recommendations. You can also do very well (IOW - a lot better than the Chinese kit) by looking into used products from the likes of ARC, Cary, Jadis, Manley, VAC, and VTL.

There are three PrimaLuna integrateds for sale on Audiogon right now starting at $1,000. One of these might be a good way to get your first experience with tubes.