In 35 years I’ve owned amps from all parts of the world. Have you noticed how small the world has become? Have you noticed how much of your household appliances are made in China or Taiwan?
I’m what you call a risk taker. High risk, high rewards. My last venture was a tube amp from none other than China. There is no US network of dealers, no, none of that jazz. Just you and the builder. I discovered the amp where a small furor was built over it, on YouTube.
There reportedly was a tube integrated amp being produced by a Chinese company called Willsenton. It was $900, plus $300 for shipping. It didn’t have auto bias. No problem for me, or anyone else really. The amp accepted KT88 or EL34 tubes, and produced the usual 45 watts per channel. I needed another tube integrated like I need a hole in the head I thought. I had a similar integrated made by Shuguang. But no, here I go down the rabbit hole again chasing of all things, a YouTube recommendation.
You pay your money and take your chances. This is how the world works. Whether buying a used car, a jazz guitar, on and on. To my surprise my brand new amp arrived triple boxed from China. How do they get a 70 pound amplifier from 3/4 the world away to my doorstep in a week I thought? Nah, must be a piece of junk. But hey, I’ll open the box anyway because as a kid I couldn’t resist Cracker Jacks, to find the surprise inside the box. So what then did I proceed to do? Right, open the box.
I was floored, absolutely floored how beautiful the amp appeared. Remember those pitch black Melody amps from 15 years ago? It was a lot like that. Simply beautiful. Okay it passed the look test. But how would it sound?
Exquisitely packaged including all tubes, I proceeded to set those new Chinese tubes aside for some made in Russia tubes. I had a new 4-some of Genelix KT88’s, and 3 new Psvane CV-181’s as a powerhouse substitute for the stock NS7’s, and a 4-some set of the original upgrade of NOS Sovtek Winged C EL34’s.
Let’s give this thing a workout. Ultra Linear mode here we come. I couldn’t get beyond 11 o’ clock before my volume meter said, whew, that’s high enough. Mind you, I’m driving ML Spirals. Although a kinder load than ML’s of the past they’re nothing to sneeze at. But this modestly built gem simply drove them like any good amp should. A few hours later, it’s time to check out triode mode, only a remote preset away. Click. Whoa!!! And we’re off and running to audio oblivion.
Turns out I was rather late to the party, because a Google search quickly revealed an audio forum that had developed exclusively on this amp. After registering I soon discovered 88 pages of forum dribble of one tube roll to another…and on, and on, and on. The Willsenton R8. Hmmm, I thought.
There’s nothing like discovering something new. Who would have thought? From China no less. Seems like we’ve something in common. Good sound.