Budget Chinese Tube amps - any good?

There are many reasons to avoid products from China, but the blnket statements about them all being crap is absolute rubbish.

I've owned a plethora of Chinese heat from company's like Eastern Electric, Jasmine and Prima Luna and there are some FANTASTIC pieces coming from that country. One of the best amps I've owner was the $4500 Shuguang S845 Mk which was outstanding.

Yes, crap comes out of China, perobably more crap than any other country, but that doesn't mean they ONLY export crap. I'd rather own a jasmine or shuguang integrated than any similarly priced American piece.

If you boycott China for political reasons that's perfectly acceptable, but claiming its all junk is ludicrous.

I'll throw in my 2 cents, and suggest that if you want to buy domestic, one of the best values out there today are hand-made tube amplifiers by people such as Jim Nicholls and Lance Cochrane. I own a Jimmy Nicholls creation, an 8 EL34 output push/pull, and it has given me nothing but listening pleasure. If I have any questions Jim is right there with helpful advice. His amps are also auto-bias, and overbuilt to last. Mine weighs 85 lbs.

I have an el34 based amp on order from Jim as well but mine is only 4 el34' with 6sn7' I purchased mine based soley on reviews I've read. Jim's amps also come with a lifetime warranty and are very reasonably priced. The only down side is the 2-3 month wait as this is a side hobby of sorts for Jim.
I currently have the TAD 1000 monoblocks which I happen to like but I'm just looking to simplify / downsize without suffering a loss of sound quality and I don't think that will be the case with Jim's amp

We used to make a guitar amplifier for a guitar amp company in town. One time they sent some parts to us to evaluate- they were Chinese imports. One of the parts was an electrolytic capacitor, rated 47uf @ 450Volts.

Now this might be a part you would use in a power supply of an amplifier. It looked a little odd though. Most tubular style filter caps have the negative end made out of metal, with the negative lead welded to that, and the other end will have a black rubber cap and the lead for the plus connection coming out of the middle of that. This part was weird because it had a black rubber plug at *both* ends. It was marked as Nichicon, a well-known manufacturer of electrolytic caps. We decided to take the cap apart.

What we found inside was another, smaller cap with a name that I could not pronounce, marked 22uf @ 400Volts. Can you imagine what would have happened if we had installed this in a power supply? Not only was it under-rated, but there is a good chance that the part we found within would not even spec up to its ratings either!

There is by no means an isolated incident. IMO the biggest issue that you run into with Chinese-built electronics will be the high voltage power supplies.

Another recommendation for Pacific Valve. They're great guys that will give you excellent support. The Eastern Electric M88 tube integrated is fantastic also, and a great value. And Bill the importer is a guy you can count on for support also.

That's the thing with buying Chinese stuff, you need a good American go-between to give you support if needed.