Cayin, Line Magnetic, and Willsenton with 805 Feedback

Thanks. Are you happy with your R8? Anything interesting about the sound or build quality?

OP

Don Better in Ohio. He has steered me to some fine equipment.

I’ve owned a Willsenton R800i 845 for over two years now.  I upgraded all the tubes w fancy NOS in preamp section and better new issue tubes in 300b and 845.  It sounds fantastic driving Klipsch Forte IIIs, Heresy IIs, and  Focal Aria 926, all high sensitivity.  I’ve rolled in a Cary Audio 300SEI and Dennis Had Inspire KT-88 as well as a vintage Crown DC300A in the main rig.  The Willsenton definitely held its own and outshines the others in PRAT, bass control and treble extension.  The Cary Audio bests it with vocal midrange, as to be expected with 300b output tubes. Never had any issues with it. The 805 or 845 will drive your JBLs with ease.

@bannon

I am happy with the R8, but it is not the amp I bought (AMZ). I did about 3/4 of the Skunkie mods, upgrading the signal path capacitors and resistors and swapping out the stock choke. I left the mains voltage switch stock and same for the headphone jack, all of which Skunkie deleted, and I didn't bother rerouting the tube heater wiring. I swapped out all of the tubes for PSVane matched power tubes (KT88), higher-grade PSVane for the 6SN7 drivers and voltage regulator and NOS RCA 5691s for the stock 6SL7s in the preamp. The sound was never bad, but there was a noticeable improvement in detail with the better tubes. The power output with the R8 makes the use of the amplifier possible with several of my less sensitive speakers, something a SET amp would not do as well. For the money, it is a very good tube amp. I have not heard the Muzishare X7 which I have heard is very good and not needing mods.Since the Skunkie vids, Willsenton has made unannounced upgrades  to the bias boards and offers tube upgrades on order (upcharge).  Skunkie has gone further to swap out the output transformers for high-grade Japanese transformers. To me, the R8 is a great budget tube amp, and remains so as long as you keep the upgrades in check, but if you are going to buy the amp then do all the mods and change out the transformers, you are 3/4ths the way to a clean used Audio Research i/50 which is a much better amp.

It seems many people in this hobby are skilled in electronics either by profession or hobbyist experience so doing the Skunkie mods is well within their capabilities. Unfortunately, I wouldn't trust myself with a soldering iron anywhere near any of these rigs. Nonetheless, I enjoy reading about your experiences and thank you for the information.