Can this be good first tube amplifier?

In the end you get what you pay for and in the tube amp world that means quite a lot.  I'm sure it will work fine but I would not judge tube amps sound on those rather inexpensive amps. They look really good and if they spend that much on looks what did they sacrifice in parts?  

Worth a shot.....

I have that very amp in my living room system driving a pair of stand mounted Wharfedale M2 speakers. It is used in a second system that I don't use for serious listening. I have had the amp for a few years now and it has been very reliable and coupled with the Wharfedales it has a very pleasing sound that is ideal for what I use it for.

@Iwin

Thanks Iwin for giving your valuable experience.

I am surprised at the sound and build quality of Line Magnetic 508 tube amplifier.

Chinese started to make good products.

I bought a yaqin mc10 for office with LSA monitors years ago if you are looking for a nice tube sound the yaqin isn't it. I had some extra  nos 1960 Mullard Blackburn plant xf2's EL34's laying around to put in it did improve but just didn't do it for me, also tried some 1980's Winged C's, yaqin sounds more solid state than tube to my ears. I kept it for a few years with no problems ran it 8 hours, 4 days a week. I ended up with a ugly dated looking Mapleshade modded Scott LK 48 $900 from Mapleshade with cheap Electro Harmonix EL84 that has a wonderful musical tone. Big bass, refined highs, great information with 6 ohm 86 db speakers in a 450 square foot room. I think it can compete with many $3000 plus tube amps, I will never sell the Scott.

After I posted  looked at your eBay add, I think the 80 watt claim is wrong, more like 40 or 45 max, that's the  same amp I had with out gold and meter. They claimed 45 back then always thought they over rated it, I get twice or more the spl with 25 watt Scott than I did with yaqin

To be honest if I bought this tube amp and it was not wired correctly or had a counterfeit part which caused it to catch fire or worse catch my audio room aflame, I don’t know who I would contact in Hong Kong. At least if I bought from a dealer I knew, who had some idea of the history of the company, history of support or history of failure I could have some kind of assurance... I did buy a Line Magnetic Audio amp from a dealer (made in Taiwan) and I had that better warranty, which was honored. I guess if I lived in China, I might know more about history, reputation, failure and support.

Tube amp sound isn't all down to the tubes. Transformers play at least as large a role. And as with everything else not just the specs but the wire and even the way the wire is wound matters. Cheap tube amps tend to use stock transformers that measure a lot better than they sound. Also if you look inside the good stuff you will see quality connections, highly organized layout, and lots of great big name brand caps. That alone can tell you a lot about your amp.

With tubes, yes there are differences between brands but generally minor compared to differences between tubes. So if you really want to get some experience what you might want to do is look for an amp that can run on different tubes. My old Aronov for example could run on 6550's or KT88's.

Personally though I would skip the cheap stuff and focus on finding the one that draws you into the music, gets your foot tapping, skin tingling and eyes watering. But that's just me.

My first integrated tube amp was a Yaqin MC-30L, it never gave me reliability issues (had it for 4 years) except it was difficult to bias since I was a noob and there was no bias meter. I had to bring it to my technician every time I tube rolled the power tubes.

Sound is okay, warm and musical but not near the level of Line Magnetic and Cayin. Based on what I've heard my ranking is:
1. Line Magnetic
2. Cayin
3. Yaqin

I have been Audio SS and Many tubes amps, preamps.
a lot of junk under $1k from China as another member mentioned
parts quality sucks, even in a lot of US built companies I have owned from top 3-4 and myself knowing parts quality inside and out ,and allways modding Loudspeakers , even at$10 k I am shocked. I looked in side Macintoswhen I sold it in the UK 
resistors and caps $5 - red wima capacitors on a $6k amp. 
The worst RO Lamm inside a lot of average parts ,because of his great engineering skills he can bypass caps quality in specific areas . This is why I say buy a high quality Used speaker, or
equipment and have top quality Bigname caps Jupiter , Duelund 
Vh Audio ,Mundorf , Rike, Vishay nakedresistors ,Caddock.
and a bunch of others , I see a Solen $12 caps in $15k+ speakers.
i bought a ML stat evolution speaker2 years ago , Solen and nothing special .i replaced caps,and sold it ,even their $80k 
speaker ,not even a Mundorf Supreme. Capacitors the cheaper white evo silver oil , which are not that great . They didnot like it 
theowner of Harbeth hung up on me. He uses caps from Taiwan 
i told him you build a quality product. Why not use U.K Clarity 
capacitors and quality 1% resistors , his ego could not handle it 
this is how Dan Modwright made it . He hired top engineers and
takes products with good potential and puts premium power supplies, transformers, wiring and parts.
with tubes by far the worst sin , and90% do it cheap tube sockets 
I had a US made integrated $150 tube sockets that have horse 
like bent paper clips for contacts and the pins not tight in the socket . I replaced them with teflon Gold overCopper sockets 
the tube store in Canada , as good or better then Yamamoto 
for $20 each , thedifference in sound quality , same tubes was 
like a great vintage tube vs a average tube of today. Aprofound difference . Try also Stabilant -22  Contact enhancer ,after cleaning contacts with high purity Isopropyl alcohol. I am just stating the facts. I owned a Audio store as well as Audiophile for 35+ years 
I now build and look for value in all modsfor myself and others .
ruleof thumb I Only use Quality  products throughout !! 

If you are looking for good Chinese amplifiers, look for distributors/dealers with equipment built specifically as export models. Like audioman58 mentions, a lot of times products that aren't "export-ready" are filled with junk parts that won't last. As Cayin's distributor, I make sure to test and check all equipment first before it is ready roll out. It is important that equipment is up to par with US standards.

I have three tube amps, Silbatone 300B amplifer with original Western Electric 300B tube made in 1930's, Line Magnetic 508ia and Rogue Cronus Magnum II.

I started this thread to give information to those who consider tube amplifier for the firs time.

Look into tsakaridis made in Greece.
I saw them in Munich. High quality gear affordable.
_aeolos_ultra integrated very special.
Regards

Try also Stabilant -22 Contact enhancer

Stabilant 22 is garbage. Can’t tell you how many electrical failures I’ve seen as a result of that junk - too many.

As for your barely coherent rant, not all expensive caps are good caps. There’s more to performance than choice of caps and resistors.

Having owned an audio store makes you an expert in what? I have a local audio dealer who knows absolute jack about making a system sound even tolerable, let alone good. Somehow he still manages to sell plenty of gear.

What is my opinion about it?
I have listened to three different brands quality tube amps. All three sounded entirely different than the other.

No one can tell you. And, if they could tell you what they think? You will still have no idea if you will like it based upon their taste. The only thing you can ask about is reliability. That is, if anyone owns one. And, it looks like you will probably need better quality tubes to sound its best. From what I read online Chinese tubes usually do not sound that good.

If you have the budget - definitely the Line Magnetic would be my choice.

I have the LM219ia, but my second choice is the LM518ia, or the newer LM845ia. I prefer the sound of 845 and 300b tubes in these models.

With the right speakers (efficient), such as the Proac D2’s, the sound is hard to beat.

See all the superb reviews of these.

Each tube amps with different tube tend to have different characteristic.

It is true that there are many Chinese tubes with glare and brittleness.

But there are also some Chinese tubes with refined sound.

I like some Psane high end tubes but they are not cheap with price over 200$ per pair.

Hello  shkong78
I had it and then I replaced it for a Line Magnetic LM508, wich is a monster and of course in a totally different leage.
Its a very nice integrated valve amp and more if you change the tubes, preamp section first.
I replaced the stock preamp valves for New Psvane 12AU7-TII and New Production Tungsol 12AX7 Cryo and these tubes made a BIG difference and are not expensive. I recomend them a lot.
I also chaged the Power tubes for Svetlana Winged "C" EL-34 and they also made a diference, but may be a little bit smaller.
Once I heard a much more expensive Prima Luna integrated EL-34 valve amp and IMO it didn't sounded better than the Yaqin MC-13S.
I only would recomend to drive speakers with a sensitivity of at least 90 ohm. The bigger, the better, and with a valve friendly impedance curve.
I also would recomend to buy it from a well known dealer. www.china-hifi-audio.com is an option.
Its a VERY nice sounding amp with an outstanding quality-price ratio!!!

Hi shkong78,
   I have the ML-13s paired with Tekton Perfect SET speakers.  

  For a budget tube system, I don't think you can do much better.  I did roll the pre-amp tubes with NOS Mullards and the system sounds much better than original tubes.  

   The Tektons are super efficient and for a low wattage system, it can put out the bass. 

-Joe
here is a review that pushed me into purchasing:  https://wallofsound.ca/audioreviews/amplification/review-yaqin-mc13s-stereo-integrated-amplifier/

As a first tube amp , I'd suggest a line level triode tube preamp . They work wonderfully well with both tube and solid state power amps, provided the input impedance is not too low . They tame digital sources without the higher heat factor of power output tubes . Some are even available as kits you can build yourself and learn something as well .

Man this turned out to be a Rohrshach (sp) test. Everybody coming at this from their own mindset on cheap and not so cheap amps, parts and all.  In general agree that the transformers play a huge role.  Also many modern tube amps do not aim to sound like the old ones and are leaner cleaner and brighter.  That is not the goal alone however a modern tube amp has to create fabulous sound stage.
I know nothing about Yaquin except the seem to have sold a ton of 6SN7 buffers a few years ago.

Thanks a lot plga and biketech60 for sharing your experience of using Yaqin ML-13s.

Of course it may be just good for beginner.  But value for performance could be high.

I am very happy with Line Magnetic 508 SET amplifier which I got this year.

Now Chinese starts to make nice products at decent price.

It is good for the consumers who have more choices.

Don’t listen to all the elites!  As a first tube experience, Yaqin is great.  I had a tube line stage preamp and it was really fun to roll with it.  I’d suggest you start with just a preamp as then you don’t have the variable of the power stage tubes which are also generally more expensive.  Beware - you’ll have a lot more tube gear and a big box of tubes if you get into this!

First of all if you would like to cut to the chase in attaining what represents tube sound I suggest that you consider that tube rectification plays a part in a true tube amp.   Point to point wiring as well .  Many amps both Chinese and others do not have tube rectification but use a solid state method. Of course transformers and implementation of the parts into a cohesive whole count for a lot. 
I had spent many hours considering going for a Chinese built amp and the many reasons for not doing so are noted in this thread.   This does not mean that good sounding tube amp can not be found in Chinese built amps but for various reasons as stated in this thread why bother when so many good tube amps can be had used.   I have had a number and I still have a Decware el84 based amp 5u4 rectified/point to point wired.     Go to the Decware site as there are amps used there for sale in the forum by tube amp fanatics.   Decware is US made and he has    been doing this for quite a long time and great company to deal with.   For that matter there are a pair of Heathkit monoblocks  for sale right here on the Gon for $795 purportedly restored ..  El 84 based as well.   A great sounding tube and many vintage tubes available for rolling.     Steer yourself away from buying new at this point in time.  Buy here in the US---check out Decware forum!

Tube rectification is not necessary to achieve the lush bloom and liquid midrange of tubes. Such claims are based on nothing but myth and conjecture.

Indeed there are also several companies in US who makes nice tube amplifiers.

I had enjoyed Rogue Cronus Magnum II for 6 years while doing lot of tube rolling.

But Yaqin could be one choice for beginner at more affordable price.