Best Chinese is an oxymoron. |
A few years back Chinese gear was a bargain. Good price and fair quality.
With the advent of higher quality products coming out of Vietnam, South Korea, etc. Chinese stuff is both overpriced and a crap shoot.
IMO
YMMV |
Not Chinese ,but these get great reveiws,Primaluna Dialogue 1. |
I'd take a look at the Eastern Electric Minimax power amp. Have used one and its a great little amp for the $$$ |
Toddnkaya, Where is Primaluna manufactured? |
Primaluna is manufactured in China.
Jolida and Antique Sound labs are some other choices. |
I can vouch for Primaluna and Jolida being good sounding and well-built gear and I have used both with Tekton Lore and 4.5s. Nice match, must tube-roll to get best sound. |
I'll second the Eastern Electric stuff as well. You could also check out Almarro 205s (Japanese), Sophia Baby, Xindak...I |
I've been very happy with my Melody SP3. They were sold by the now-defunct AV123 company under the Onix brand name. They're about $500 used these days. |
The MiniWatt amp remains a steal if your speakers are efficient enough. |
Audiofeil,
I'm unaware that Vietnam is producing quality audio gear. That does not surprise me since Vietnam is producing some of the best quality mainstream clothing! |
Why would anyone go out of their way to buy a Chinese tube amp. If you think Chinese tube amplifiers represent good value, used Manley, VTL, Audio Research, Conrad Johnson and Quicksilver represent an even greater value. |
People knock Jolida but I've had pretty good luck with them. I currently have a Jolida 102b that I picked up here on Agon a couple months back for $350. I previously owned a Jolida 302b and the little FX10. For near field listening (which is what I have to do since I have a desktop system) I really like the 102b. The FX10 was ok but I didn't care for it's looks. The 302b was also ok but seemed to be really bass shy. The 102b is the sweet spot IMO especially at the price I paid. Both the 102b and 302b seem pretty well built to me (the FX10 feels and looks cheaper). I also owned a VTL ST85 which gave me a lot of problems so I can't really recommend them though I did like their MB125 mono blocks driving maggies. |
Eastern Electric ia a very nice sounding amp leaving money out of the equation.High Quality build as well. |
Some of these amps made in China are a killer value and a DIY dream for mods. Fun stuff that sounds good for cheap. |
I have a 102B that ive been listening to for the past couple months while getting repairs done on my seperates.It sounds very good,not the last word in resolution,or bass,but for the price, hard to beat.Im listening to The Planets right now and really impressed with the quality Im getting thru this amp. |
My vote is for the Jolida JD-502P amplifier. Can be found for under $1000 or a little over $1000 with mods straight from Jolida. It can also be used with the Tung Sol KT-120 tubes. |
I own a Yaqin MC-10T. It's a PP EL34 amp. Sound, though not as good as my EICO HF-60s, is still quite impressive for the low price. It has a very 'modern' / fast sound. I ran mine for many hours without any issue - currently on loan to a friend who put it through its paces.
Modding them is a bit of pain, though I did manage to replace the stock blue coupling caps with Wimas.
I preferred the sound of the MC-10T over many vintage tube amps I've owned, including the Dynaco ST-70, Mark IIIs, Mark IVs, various 6BQ5 amps, and a H-K Citation V. |
