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Muzishare R100 300B 805 ... My Review and opinion

So after nearly a 10 year break from HiFi with my current system just sitting all these years and getting next to zero use, i decided, during some interior remodeling around the house, to get in some well deserved R&R and get back into one of my favorite hobbies :)
After some experimenting with my OPPO DVD player and a resultant removal and abandonment of a system preamp entirely (OPPO has its own volume control), i decided to give Tube amps a try, "once again", to see if tech improvements might have improved the sound in the bass department over the years. 
I had also enlisted the services of a Chinese Gustard DAC with blue tooth for on line music services via my iPhone. What a GOD SEND this is, but more on that later.
So currently the system is quite simple with OPPO DVD, Gustard blue tooth DAC, Theta DreadnaughtI Amp, and Vandersteen Quatro fabric speakers. The room is damped against unwanted reflections and is on the medium/ large side.
Being "quite impressed" (total understatement) with the build, topology, and parts quality of the Chinese Gustard DAC id just installed, i decided to start researching Chinese Amps as well and decided on the R100 Muzishare, backed by Amazons return policy for Prime customers. An essentially ZERO RISK venture :)
Being a Theta Dreadnaught SS Amp owner, I've had a number of Tube Amps in my system that have bidded against this amp for a permanent home in my system only to be removed and put back on Audiogon.... (same goes for SS Amps for that matter). Tube gear from, VTL, CJ, Rogue, ect.... non gave as complete of a virtual sonic picture as the Theta. And entirely because of the bass roll off IMO. 
So enter Muzishre R100 300B 805.
This is an absolutely gorgeous piece to look at and the build quality is outstanding! I was shock what 2700.00 bought because just 10 years ago ida been 15K easy! It sounded just as a tube amp would with all of its glorious midrange and sparkly highs. Very enjoyable and easy to listen to. With one exception..... a lack of bass.
Understand that the Vandersteen Quatro speakers have powered subs and high pass the amp at 100hz thus removing at least half the low bass current demand on any amp they are matted with. This took some measurements with a volt meter and a few listening sessions to determine what sounded best but after trying both an 80hz and 100 hz x-over point, i decided on the stock setting of 100Hz. 
This is what i can say about this amp..... Its an EXTREMELY good value and sounds absolutely fabulous! But... Its a tube Amp and lacks low bass response, and without low bass, you have no low bass upper harmonics, and without low bass upper harmonics, your sonic picture and image is compromised from the mid bass on down and your not getting "as much" of the virtual sonic image that you could be. 
To further, my opinion on "Tube Magic" is the result of a lack of low bass and thus the unmasking of much of the midrange that would otherwise be covered up by the bass.... that is, until you use an amp and transducer configuration that avoids that issue entirely. Hence a zero feedback ss biamp system that's time and phase coherent from nose to tail. Even with a powered sub system, the low bass sonic signature is so attenuated with tube gear that it cannot be boosted enough even with a properly configured crossover and a stand alone bass amp. Even the VTL 450MB mono bocks weren't enough to do the job back in the day. Its weird because even though normal listening levels don't require more than just a few watts to fill an average room with sound, yet a tube just won't make enough current to provide the full sonic spectrum without compromise. These are just my analogies. YMMV :)

Bottom line, Its a wonderful product at a killer price and sounds, not just a little, but exactly, like tube amps many multiples its price point. IMO Chinese audio gear has come of age. But im just not a tube guy i guess.
For individual instrument amplification like a guitar, Hell yeah! Tubes baby!! But for full range play back.... wrong tool for the job IMO. 

chrisschuster
earlflynn's avatar
earlflynn
461 posts
 
McIntosh is not all SS.

They have 2 hybrids in the line.

McIntosh is hardly the benchmark for me anyway. Was and still am a Simaudio guy along with my tubes.

Enjoy.
earlflynn's avatar
earlflynn
461 posts
 
https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/amplifiers/MC1502

Fact Check Wrong!!!!!!! 

Tubes will live on guys. But there are technical realities here that have never changed sense the onset of using tubes as a full range amplification device in a full range audio play back system. Why do you think McIntosh is all SS now? :)

chrisschuster OP
7 posts
 
@earlflynn;

McIntosh did indeed discontinue tube amp production for a very long block of time from 1970 all the way to 2004 (barring a couple of commemorative models).
Tube amp production was revitalized when McIntosh saw how some of their 1960s amps were selling on Ebay for about 20 times what they cost originally (feel free to call them and ask). It was a marketing play...plain and simple.
To further that, check out the MC910 dual mono. Tube top and SS bottom. What does that tell you? :)

Again, to each his own but facts are facts.

And also once again, people hear things differently so these are subjective conversations we have, so nobody is truly right or wrong, but I myself tend to lean on logics side and things I can measure and prove to myself with my own ears (like double blind testing, real time switchers and things like that).
I personally have never believed that a person can listen to a piece of audio gear, then shut it off, swap it with another one, power it back up, and then make accurate analogize on what they hear, unless there are major and technically measurable "sonic" differences between the two. You have to be able to switch back and forth in real time and then do multiple switching sessions at different times of day, during different moods, wether your hungry or full, all these things have a profound effect on the way humans hear.

But more on that later :)
earlflynn's avatar
earlflynn
461 posts
 
@chrisschuster for the purpose of this guys post I was right and still am.
Facts are Facts they make tube  equipment and the post is misleading.
McIntosh has never been the standard in my world though. Owned a couple of their amps tube and SS and sold them in less than a year.
chrisschuster OP
7 posts
 
@earlflynn.The purpose of the post is spelled out in the thread title. Its clear your eyes are as subjective as your ears.
Let me have my opinion. I think I've gone to enough lengths to at least show how ive arrived at the decisions I've made with my audio gear therefore lending usable insight to my fellow forum readers.
Your just attempting to stifle that insight because you think it might threaten your sales. I HIGHLY doubt that will be the case so rock-on brother!
McIntosh is more than just an idle example of what makes HiFi manufactures do what they do, and nobody ever said they were a bench mark (as there is no such thing IMO) but they are indeed the standard, because so much HiFi gear sounds exactly the same and can be proven to that fact. It is the subjectiveness and resultant opinion of us humans as HiFi consumers that keep this hobby/industry going and ANY HiFi manufacturer knows this or they won't be in biz very long (hence McIntosh bringing tubes amps back). The technology and resultant sonic improvements of this stuff has moved hardly millimeters in the last 30 years. The vast majority of would be product innovation being mere gimmicks. These guys HAVE to do this or they are dead and so is a wonderful hobby/industry.
Back to the Muzishare. Its sounds exactly like an amp you can buy from an ANY manufacturer for 6 times the price easy. Its a smoking value, built from a solid group of off the shelf parts (mostly American made) in a chassis that'll last years and years.... Just don't drop the damn thing (as a shipper did to another owners amp) ! Does it re-write the book on tube amp sound...absolutely not because no tube amp currently does IMO. Its the price that is THE main attraction here.
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