Chinese Made AMPS/PREAMPS

I was doing some research on tube amps and preamps and was surprised to find that a great many of these products were being made in China.....many of these apparently well-received here in the United States. Help me out by listing any companies/brands that you know are being WHOLLY made in China. I say WHOLLY because I've found that it has been alleged that many components of American made brands are made in China.

Mei Xing - Particularly effective MC368B
Ming Da - Made by Mei Xing/looks alike
Jolida - Modder's favorite
Cayin - A-88T is a favorite, apparently no longer sold in the USA(?)
Prima Luna - Beauty!
Xian Sheng - Nice KT88
Music Angel - A whole series of attractive units
Yarland - Made in same factory as Mei Xing

I found indications of other Chinese companies but I don't want to mention them because I could not find anything specific. Also found LA AUDIO out of Taiwan and SILK from Thailand. The SILK's were impressive in that all units were trimmed in a great looking wood!

 

Consonance
Antique Sound Labs
Quad (yes, Quad)

Jolida amps are not wholly made in China. Final assembly and testing is done in Maryland. I'm not exactly sure what "final assembly" is, though.

 

Same is true with TAD (Tube Audio Design). I know their TAD-150 preamp is made in China but final tweaking is done here in the states.

 

Don't forget Xindak, Hyperion, Usher, and Shanling. This includes anyone using the Onix or Music Hall CD-25...which is just a re-branded Shanling player. At present time, there are zero components in any of my systems which were made in China...only USA, UK, and Japan.

 

I own the Cayin A88t

It is a great amp. Love it. I had the Krell KAV300i earlier. This amp beats it at half the price. The only issue is the internal biasing which can be a pain.

 

Antique Sound Labs here. Mono blocks (MG-SPM25DT) & Headphone amp (MG-HeadDT). Been working great for a few years now.

 

I got the new Acoustic Sounds catalog in the mail yesterday and they had a feature about the Cayin line. Acoustic Sounds will now be carrying some/most/all? of the Cayin line of amps and preamps. They also had two tube cd players in the catalog.

 

I have several Dared products.

I have owned 3 Dared pieces now for over 2 years with no problems. These are the VP-300B, the SL2000 preamp and a MP6v amp. Right now I am listening to the 300B amp, and it sounds great. The little SL2000 preamp is the weakest of the 3, being bettered by my other tube preamp (an ARC LS7), but there is about an 8x difference in price as well. The 2 amps, both single ended sound very nice indeed, and I would not hesitate to recommend them to others. Both are great intros to Single ended amps at a very resonable price. Are there better out there, yes, but at 4x or more the price.


Tim

 

My Quad II Classics were indeed made in China.

 

I think Usher is made in Taiwan.

I'm going to play that game--hold on--

Triangle Sub Espace and Titus 202: France
Audioquest & Kimber cable: US
Canare cable: Japan
Philips DVD963SE: Hungary
Creek OBH-8, OBH-2: UK
Musical Fidelity X-DACv3, X-10v3: Taiwan
Denon DP-23F: Japan
Grado cartridge: US
Conrad Johnson CAV-50: US
JJ/Tesla EL-34: Slovakia
RCA & Philips signal tubes: US
Cardas power cord: US
Adcom ACE-515: Taiwan
Tivo Series 2 DVR: Mexico
Panasonic TV: Mexico
Speaker stands: Canada
Euipment rack: Italy
Linksys wireless network adapter: China

DRATS! Almost made it! Oh well . . . not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

Music is truly international in scope, isn't it!

 

Oooh how sweeeet it is.

 

Shanling stp-80

 

A few month ago, I purchase a DIY kit amp from China. Stereo with 6L6 tubes. Sounds real good for its price.

 

Both my Model T3B 300B SET power amp and Model Q4B 6SN7 SRPP linestage preamp are hand made by a single individual from Hong Kong; Lam Ying Wing (aka: Edmund Lam) sells his creations under the BEZ brand name regularly on eBay (his user ID is: zagger1) and does quite a lot of business worldwide selling point-to-point wired tube preamps and both SET and PP tube amps at affordable prices. Sound great too!

 

I have one unfortunate China component, a Denon 2900. The line out connections probably will need resoldering soon, since just a slight movement of the cables creates loud hum. Also, they failed to put a 2nd set of outputs on it like so many other components in this price range. Piece-o-junk as far as QA. Sounds excellent though, but I won't be buying Chinese in the future, that's for sure. There needs to be some sort of huge importing tariffs applied to Chinese equipment, so we can get the quality back before its too late.

 

ubsman, that's unfortunant about your Denon (a Japanese firm that assembles their components in China), but that isn't necessarily considered a Chinese product like the brands listed above. In my own system I also have a Nakamichi (of Japan) that's assembled in the Philippines, a Cambridge Audio (of Great Britian) made in China, a Monster Power (USA) made in Taiwan, and Loth-X (of Germany) assembled in Singapore. Seems most large audio firms throughout the globe outsource to China or other 3rd world nation, so it may be awfully hard not to buy any audio product, no matter what part of the world their corporate headquarters are located at, that's not assembled in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong.

Of course, this thread's about Chinese audio firms that design and build their own products, and how they are slowly but surely improving. My brother also owned a JoLida (from the USA) Model JD 202a, and a Dared (Chinese owned and built) VP-16 integrated amp; dare I say the Dared 6V6-based amp was far better sounding than the stock (unmodified) JD 202a. Hell, even my Chinese made TJ 300B/n meshplate anode globe output tubes sound fantastic, and a good matchup with all my other NOS Amarican, British, and Canadian vacuum tubes (which did replace all my less-than stellar original Chinese military tubes that came with my amp/preamp).

Just my own observation...

 

A different perspective....

It's interesting to see the positive ownership experiences of Chinese-made amps/pre-amps posted here. My only experience with a Chinese-made amp is my current Cambridge Audio A500 and it's been trouble-free for the last 2 years that I owned it. However, being originally from Hong Kong, I cruise the audiophile websites there too and find the reactions to Chinese-made amps/pre-amps there to be slightly different. It's good to see that these Chinese-made amps/pre-amps (and other components) find an acceptance overseas because Hong Kong audiophiles would never admit to owning these components. Not because of any performance or quality control issues, but that of the perceived inferiority of a "lesser known" brand. Linnman, a reviewer from Hong Kong for 6moons.com, shared the following in his introduction....

At one point, several years ago, I was considering putting together an all-Chinese made 5.1 system consisting of 5 NHT SuperOnes, 5 ASL V8 8 watts/channel monoblocks and the Klipsch Chinese-made AV pre-pro. Can't find a Chinese-made sub back then.

BTW, Mission, Quad, Wharfedale and AudioLab now share the same Chinese parent company.

 

I am thinking of buying a Bez KT88 PushPull power amp (Model:T9A-2) from zagger1 for $650.00 which includes shipping. Is that a good deal and rate the sound?..Mark

 

Made in China:

Audio Experience Preamp
ASL Wave 20 Monoblocks

 

Answered your PM...

I cannot speak for other models that I've never heard. But I can say that I'm extremely pleased with my Model T3B 300B SET power amp. I can't think of any other manufacturer anywhere that'll charge only $550 shipped for a class-A, zero negative feedback, single-ended stereo amp using point-to-point wiring and top grade components, and having it sound as good as it does and not cost over a grand! If my amp and preamp are any indication of Edmund Lam's craftsmanship, then I would also recommend the Model T9A-2 without any hesitation.

Just my two cents...

 

I’ve been fooling around with some Chinese equipment lately:

Eastern Electric Minimax
Can be a bit noisy, but it sounds great. One of the best bargains around. Easy tube rolling to suit personal taste. I’ve been using this amp for almost 2 years now and I am afraid that I have to spend a large sum of money to improve on this one.

Consonance Cyber 222
If was curious if this pre amp would outperfom the Minimax and add flashy looks, modern engineering and remote control as a bonus. But the Minimax sounds better and beware: the 222 has a very akward working volumecontrol.

Melody SHW1688II
I guess this is the one to beat the Minimax. Unfortunately I have not been able to listen to it yet.

ASL Wave 20
Nice toy monoblocks with a bit too much transformer hum. Sounds easy on the ear. OK for a second system or as a spare. I have used them temporarily because I’ve sold my power amps (Graaf GM20’s) and wanted to get me some time to search for new ones.

Opera Audio M400
Bought these 40W monoblocks very cheap as a replacement for the ASL’s. Plain looks, sturdy built quality, performs without flaws. Sounds musical and balanced.

Consonance Cyber 800 or Melody S88 monoblocks
One of these will be my final choice. The Cyber 800’s sound great with my speakers. But I want to hear the Melody SHW1688/S88 combination first just to make sure.

 

It should be interesting to see which one of the two you choose.

 

I have a request: Please mention the purchase price of the gear when mentioning ..

The quality of sound vs. cost... I got's to know... How much does it cost, in the real world, not the MSRP, the real "street" price!

It's always thrilling to find a piece of gear that far outperforms it's price, they are out there, we just have to let each other know about it.

It gives us an idea of how much money it takes to obtain some of this lovely gear.. Otherwise we are blind to that important issue.. and we must do a whole lot of research to find out, and are much too lazy.

P.S. I buy and trade nearly exclusively in the used market, new cost is just insane! I can find very good older gear that perhaps might need a little work, or might not, for little money compared to buying something roughly equivalent but spanking new. Like perhaps 1/10th of the price or even less!
I enjoy sometimes listening to a system I put together for under $1,000 and I think it stomps on the sound of a modern system that might cost $10,000 or more.. Then I might sell it, (for a small profit) and cobble together another system from the second-hand market all over again, part of the hobby for me, it's fun.