Have you heard darTZeel Amplifiers

Yes I have heard one of the Chinese versions.A Weiliang with the big blue Sprague power supply caps.There are cheaper versions and other than the speaker protection circuit they appear to be pretty close to the real thing.

I can't say how close they sound to the real thing because I have not heard the real thing.Regardless of that however I believe they sound extremely good in their own right.That might be because they sound like the real thing or not.I will say that they are not an idiot proof sort of SS amp like say a Krell .They seem to sound and behave more like a triode valve amp so are more speaker and preamp fussy but have a triode sort of sweetness and refinement.I also suspect they are much better with 8 ohm speakers than 4 ohm.They also vastly improve and sound far more dynamic and vivid with a good active preamp so not something you can use with a passive preamp or digital volume control.They sound really good driving vintage Tannoys which normally do not sound good with SS amps.To me that indicates they are quite different to most SS amps electrically and this would appear to tie in with the measured performance of the real thing which features no global negative feedback, relatively high output impedance/lowish damping factor and relatively high distortion especially into 4 ohm loads for a SS amplifier.So a bit more like a valve amp-or rather half way between a typical valve amp and a SS one.

I

Get a Chinese copy? Nope!

@fiesta75 i currently have the dartzeel nhb108 - model 1. the model 2 is apparently quite an improvement. I have had aesthetix atlas, first watt sit 3, cary audio sli-80 amps in my audio setup. I’d say that with the Dartzeel you get a very organic/natural mid range and a 3D soundstage that tubes give, but the clarity and bass control of solid state. It makes music sound like live music. I love the Dartzeel. If you are going to spend that kind of money even for a used unit, I highly recommend (if you are in the US) to each out to Jonathan Tinn (Chambers Audio/Blue light Audio) - he is the US distributor for Dartzeel. Great guy to deal with. He does get used units time to time, and he will make sure it’s in great working condition (he sent mine back to dartzeel to have it looked over before selling it to me) - in fact i believe he has a used model 2 at this time. Good luck in your search.

I’ve not heard a genuine NHB108 however I have heard the 250WPC KR Audio Black Widdow NHB108 clone. My Absolute Audio Labs SIT-A15 power amp is ahead though only when paired with its matching ASL-1Z preamp. The NHB108 copy sounds better with a larger variety of preamps and has the sonic attributes written about in various reviews of the genuine NHB108 which is frankly absolutely magical.

That said my Absolute Audio Labs gear is the perfect match for lovers of high efficiency full range drivers. These fall apart driven by the 250WPC NHB108 copy yet are magical when paired with the 15WPC Tokin VFET circlotron amp. The NHB108 copy on the other hand seems to perform magically with multi driver speakers and I’ve not noted any limitations when it comes to bass. In fact it’s the best sounding bass I’ve heard.

 That said, for me I love full range drivers so have some 1.75m behemoths being built for a new pair of 103.3db sensitive Lii Song Platinum-10 drivers I’ve sourced. Massive cabs needed to get a fairly flat response to 30Hz.  ;)

@mjw25a 

Apparently KR doesn't make that clone any more. I don't see it on their site.