Looking at some of the prices for the amps you listed, I see they are well north of $2500.
How much power do you need?
bob
China built tube amps
Well I had an interesting conversation today. I contacted a large dealer and let him know I would like to buy a certain integrated tube amplifier that is made in China. I was told he wouldn't sell me one. He said they are all junk. Prima Luna, Line Magnetic, Cayin, etc, etc, he said forget it. If you want a tube amplifier buy an American or European built unit that can be serviced.
So, I am new to valve amplifiers and I want to try one to understand what they're all about and sort of get my feet wet with tube rolling etc. I don't want to spend a lot of money at first which is why I was looking at Chinese built integrateds. So my question is, without getting into any particular brand other than what I have already mentioned, what is your experience with Chinese built tube amps? As a whole are they reliable? Am I wasting my money if I buy one according to this dealer? I have to admit I was rather taken aback by how adamant he was. Thoughts anyone?
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@falconquest Yep, that's the same dealer I communicated with as well. I knew it. He carries both Ayon and Atma-Sphere (among others) so the recommendations make sense - both are great brands but there is no place in this market to disparage entire country's products. He will never get my business. |
I bought a Cayin CS-55A from Musicteck a NJ dealer for $2000. They provide tech support .I have tried a number of different tubes and am using the KT-88 Gold Lions, It sounds fantastic! If you want to get one from amazon check out the Musishare or Willsenton. They have multiple reviews on YouTube. I think the famous Doge 10 is also now available directly from China.
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What's worse than those cheapo Amazon Chinese amp? Your dealer! There are many angles to analyze the situation. 1. You went to a dealer which doesn't stock good Chinese amps and ask about it. Many audio dealer these days aren't any better than used car salemen. To put an analogy, you don't walk into a Ford dealer and ask them how good Honda's are. You won't expect them to tell you go to the Honda dealer nextdoor. They will of course tell you their cars/amps are better, that's their job! 2. Chinese amps comes in a whole spectrum of quality. There are the $400 300B tube amp from Amazon, and there are the good quality, Line Magnetic, Cayin, Willsenton, Prima Luna. I have a couple of LM amps and they sound great if matched with the correct speakers. If you look inside, the build quality is also top notched. Surely there are crap ones, but you just need to weed them out and don't generalize. Generalizing from solely looking at the poorest quality product is very commonplace these days, and it means that you will miss out on the better products.
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