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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

Showing 2 responses by gopher

gopher
499 posts
 
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.
gopher
499 posts
 
I always find the responses to these threads to be completely ridiculous. Yes, there is crap coming out of China, but there are a lot of SOLID companies with very good sounding equipment. Melody for example is designed in Austria and built in China--I just sold their $2k introductory amp (which kicked the crap out of a Music Reference RM-9, VAC PA100/100 and Decware Torii 3 IMO) to buy their $6k flagship integrated.

There are plenty of other GREAT Chinese options as well, Prima Luna, Cayin, Jasmine, Eastern Electric--these companies do NOT suck!
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