1st full tube amp Oldchen EL34

Thanks for all the responses. After a few hours of listening I am generally pleased with the $150 spent. I may pass on upgrading as I saw the silicone inside and have zero interest in prying stuff loose. It will remain as is and be enjoyed. Tubes may or may not be my thing. Stressing over heat, bias, and high voltage may get in the way of just listening. The engineer in me may just be too curious to actually enjoy them. 

Good call on the internal mods :)

After seeing how the amp survived my friends rather “careless” treatment of the amp, I wouldn’t worry too much :)

Oh, and he kept it in a confined space in an entertainment unit. Got really toasty in there!

Live with it for a bit, see how you like the sonic signature. 
 

And tubes, the “maintenance” of tubes and the care one needs to observe, isn’t for everyone. Nor is the sound they produce. That’s in your hands to decide :)

For years I sold new Jolida and Black Ice Audio gear. And I have sold a lot of vintage SS gear. I have auditioned a lot of gear over the years. I bought an Old Chen EL34 amp. Very good build quality. Best sounding amp I ever heard. Self Biasing. Many people wonder if a Chinese made amp is safe- what? Why not? I have a set of kitchen knives made in China- 20 years old and still razor sharp. Also, silver wiring makes for very clear sound, but amplifies the upper frequencies and is not so good with bass. I prefer good quality solid copper. The Old Chen EL34 is not junk. The transformers do not get hot, only a bit warm- that is a sign of good transformers. And one does not need to spend $3000 to get a good SS amp. Any piece of gear can only be so good. Beyond that you are throwing your money away. 

For years I sold new Jolida and Black Ice Audio gear. And I have sold a lot of vintage SS gear. I have auditioned a lot of gear over the years. I bought an Old Chen EL34 amp. Very good build quality. Best sounding amp I ever heard. Self Biasing. Many people wonder if a Chinese made amp is safe- what? Why not? I have a set of kitchen knives made in China- 20 years old and still razor sharp. Also, silver wiring makes for very clear sound, but amplifies the upper frequencies and is not so good with bass. I prefer good quality solid copper. The Old Chen EL34 is not junk. The transformers do not get hot, only a bit warm- that is a sign of good transformers. And one does not need to spend $3000 to get a good SS amp. Any piece of gear can only be so good. Beyond that you are throwing your money away. 

I own a OldChen 845-A 300B I bought in Amazon for $1600 and it is fantastic, quiet and no issues so far. I also own a Reisong A12 (a version of the A10), and the same. And also my favorite, the Reisong (Bouyarange or whatever) A50, a 300b tube amp, and more of the same. I tried once a cheaper one, like around $200, with phono and bluetooth, and it was a lot of fun but stopped working in a year or so. I also own a Jadis Black Orchestra and it blew a tube right out of the box, $1000 bucks later sounds very good. I also have an Accuphase E-280, the jewel of the crown. I owned once one of those fantastic Decware that I had to sell because of the hum, probably a problem of my house DC, I don’t know, and I also had to sell a Pass Lab A25, the integrated, because it runs hot, I mean hot, like 50 C. My point is that there is a lot of snobism and even ignorance around Chinese amps. They can be good or bad, like any other amps, but they all have something in common: they are very inexpensive, and if you find one that works well in your system, does not make noise (oh, I forgot had to return the EL34 based Resisong because of the hum too), etc. it could be the bargain of the year simply because they are not wildly overpriced, like most of the hifi gear these days, we all know. And, yes, you can kill yourself if you play with one of these things , Chinese or not, if you have no clue what your are doing.