Mid-fi integrated tube amp advice

Many thanks for your recommendations. I wasn't even aware of Unison and two of you recommended it! There don't seem to be many Yaquin's available on the used market and Jolida is fairly plentiful. I'm wondering if that reflects owner satisfaction or how many were sold new.

So a triode mode EL34 would be a good match for my speakers. My Denon AVC-3000 (don't laugh, It's served me well for 35 years) puts out 80W at 8ohms.

Do the 13S and 30L both have triode modes too?

Silk appears to be taking a break and has nothing for sale right now. That would appear to leave China-hifi, Newegg and the big A as places to buy a Yaquin. It looks like I'm probably headed down the full tube path.

How much better is the quality of the Cayin? They don't appear to be much more expensive than the Yaquin.

10t, 13s and 30l. Do they all have a similar sound?

Freediver, I've been looking at that one. It's one of two Yaqin models I've been considering, it's priced $120 less than from "A" delivered to my door and it's the same, or a little less than from China. The seller is the very reputable Canadian "dealer" that provides warranty and support.

I saw your message this morning and got worried that someone would read it and buy it for the great deal that it is........so I bought it. Thanks for pushing me over the edge and into the world of tube sound.

Thanks guys, but I'm waiting for delivery of my yaqin 30l.

Yes it did! My apologies, I thought I had posted via mobile but I guess I never sent it and I was out of town for 10 days with no internet connection at all.

It arrived well packed and fairly quickly from Canada (from Tabnac on Ebay). I plugged it in and started playing records. My initial impression was that the mids were much more open and full, especially at lower volume levels than my 30 year old SS A/V amp. It has no trouble whatsoever driving my q900's to high volume levels. All those numbers and calculations seem pretty insignificant at this point. I've not yet set the bias, I've got faith that Tabnac at least checked it but it is on my list of things to do. I've got about 4-5 hours on it so far.

Soooo, quick shipping, well packed, high quality and sound that blew me away, especially with the clarity of the mids at lower volume levels. I couldn't be happier.

I do have a couple questions. I took the aluminum cage off and haven't put it back on. Does this help dissipate heat? What about the Lucite plates around the smaller tubes, do they dissipate or hold in heat? I don't care about looks, I'm only interested in heat dissipation to help preserve the equipment. The two front power tubes are leaning in slightly but appear to be well seated, is this normal? When the amp is "idling" with no music playing is it still burning in, or only when music is playing?

Thanks again for all your advice and helping give me the confidence to jump into an inexpensive Chinese amp.

After a month of listening, I finally got around to checking the bias. It's .25-26 across all 4 tubes, considerably lower than the .37-38 I've seen recommended and the .43 printed on the amp. I'm wondering if Tabnac dialed it down for break in. I've got about 50 hours on the amp and think I need to just bring the voltage up to spec.

Any thoughts on the benefits of lower voltage during break in?