Nobsound EL34 Single-ended Class A tube amplifier
- Thread starter Frank Sol
- Start date
Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
This one (stereo) would be nice at 1/3 of the cost of the amp 
http://www.partsconnexion.com/controls_pot_tkd.html
I'm not sure which would do; 10, 50 or 100K
http://www.partsconnexion.com/controls_pot_tkd.html
I'm not sure which would do; 10, 50 or 100K
Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
45 +/- hours
Hooked it up as a power amp (vol set at 3 o'clock per instructions) driving my Klipsch Forte' with the Nobsound NS-01P as the Preamp - I feel the amp is safe to use now - fingers crossed
Plenty of power driving my Klipsch - SP level is at my desired db with the preamp at 10-11 o'clock
I'll give the amp another 6-8 hours in this set-up before my 'review'
Hooked it up as a power amp (vol set at 3 o'clock per instructions) driving my Klipsch Forte' with the Nobsound NS-01P as the Preamp - I feel the amp is safe to use now - fingers crossed
Plenty of power driving my Klipsch - SP level is at my desired db with the preamp at 10-11 o'clock
I'll give the amp another 6-8 hours in this set-up before my 'review'
KKnight
Active Member
Guys, guys, GUYS-
I was reading thru this thread at random, almost looking for a new tube amp myself that was not from China. I hope everybody and anybody will read this post. I have tons of first hand experience with 'Nobsound'.
- The basic Nobsound EL34 that started this thread is not the one you want. The EL 34 that is made that is the best bang for your buck is the NS-01 IF you can get a decent one.
- "Nobsound" not only re-brands a ton of their branded products from the same Chinese company in Shaugang province China, but so does about 17 other companies. Nobsound boasts that a lot of their amps etc are handmade by a guy named "David", but its pure BS. They all are made by slaving little Chinese girls in a mass produced factory setting. Most of their products will wreak of factory machine oil, dirt, and the like. Believe me.
- Nobsound goes by several different name brands themselves, and uses Amazon, Ebay, Audiogon etc to flood the market with the same products. One of their other names is Doukmall. Their Customer Service is ALL handled by the same guy- he goes by 4 different female names that we know of; Vivian, Amy, Delores, and Maria. BEWARE.
- The problem with their amps is it is completely hit-and-miss. Is the engineering and design sound and safe? Hit and miss. About 50%. Never trust the photos, especially the (usual) one shot of the interior. One could contain all good quality caps, resistors, etc, and the next one could contain pure crap general grade low end components. On 4 of their amps, I personally have seen mix of outdated old dried up caps, etc. Most are are intentionally engineered to not be standard uf values and grades so we Americans and Europeans can not upgrade or improve their designs thru mere parts replacement from Mouser, Digikey, etc.
- Some of the more reputable Chinese companies, like Yaqin, are pretty CS and engineering oriented, and will always discuss with you improvements/mods and provide schematics. Not Nobsound and the their names they go by. They will not ever provide schematics. Some of the designs are point-to-point wiring mostly; some use a single small circuit board. Some of the smallest and least effective I've seen.
- Nobsound faux and plays ignorance when it comes to reading, understanding, and writing English. It's a old "used car salesman" marketing trick. Beware. They understand a lot more than they lead on to.
- One of the first products I, personally, ordered from them was a Digital Turntable thru Amazon. It was a almost empty case with a blank circuit board in it. Huge battle to get them to admit fault and at least send a finished complete circuit board I could DIY in for a finished product. Not funny. Come to find out overall, they do this intentionally to ruse western speaking paying customers. Almost a grey market policy.
- "Nobsound" is part of a Chinese third-party business conglomerate that runs several different small warehouses on U.S. soil, so they can say "It's located in the USA.". They use a cash flow operation to cycle and re cycle new, used, defective, and returned electronics. Your chances of getting something brand new, WITH good quality tubes or internal components is again hit-and-miss.
- I had ordered a NS-01 EL34 tube amp, personally, from them also as a part of a test to see what all of the previous research was saying. I can tell you personally what I got:
It was shipped from CA. It was used. It was marketed and sold as brand new. Externally it was not like the marketing photos. It had chemical scaring all over the silver top and faceplate. They at least used the "new" Himing Russian made EL34's (not Shaugang brand) but one of them the internal top of the filament was burned off. The VU meters were not for biasing but did not function at all. The single set of scag metal gold coated RCA jacks on the back were defective. After three hours of burn in the right channel failed completely.
Playing dumb, and keeping a record of all emails and messages, I reported this personally to them and went thru a 4 week battle of this "David" using female names screaming he hand made this amp and it was new. LOL. Some of the major Eretailers have all the records and are investigating themselves, and have told the company I work for that they have been doing so since Dec last year.
Get this- Nobsound under this name also included 2 pirated self-burned Chinese pop music CDs; one my companies anti virus software hit on as containing malware and a major Trojan virus.
Some of you more experienced hands on guys need to get several of these EL34 amps, under the names Nobsound, Doukmall, GemTube, and many other names (all the same mass produced amps) IF you can get a seemingly new one, and reverse engineer them not only for quality (quality of components excluded), but for safety and design. My tenured, close EE friend on the west coast with Hughes Aircraft won't even bother. He says they are all pure junk.
Also, whoever posted the suggestion in like the 2~4 post in this thread on the low-end amp suggestion with the tube cages around the tubes, it's the same deal. Model MS-10D. Its mass produced and sells under 6 different names. The tubes cages are pure thin cheap plastic. It IS NOT a pure tube amp. It's a cheap HYBRID. The mains are horrible low end transistors. The tubes are pre-amp only. It was like listening to a old school cheap transistor radio. After 2 hours of testing and use, the front plate was too hot to even touch including the knobs. The meter and everything would burn up and fry, or would not last more than a few months if that.
Oh also- wanted to say at least 1 or 2 of you pulled the trigger on one of the amps. But you need to take it apart and get the results to a good EE (Electrical Engineer) and see exactly how it was engineered and designed. The company I work for also uncovered the fact that the third party conglomerate 'Nobsound' is a part of employs a professional pure BS review writing company to write faux reviews on most of the major Eretailer sites. I believe it, Most if not all of the positive reviews I personally have read on their amps is waaaay too sugar coated.
Cheers
I was reading thru this thread at random, almost looking for a new tube amp myself that was not from China. I hope everybody and anybody will read this post. I have tons of first hand experience with 'Nobsound'.
- The basic Nobsound EL34 that started this thread is not the one you want. The EL 34 that is made that is the best bang for your buck is the NS-01 IF you can get a decent one.
- "Nobsound" not only re-brands a ton of their branded products from the same Chinese company in Shaugang province China, but so does about 17 other companies. Nobsound boasts that a lot of their amps etc are handmade by a guy named "David", but its pure BS. They all are made by slaving little Chinese girls in a mass produced factory setting. Most of their products will wreak of factory machine oil, dirt, and the like. Believe me.
- Nobsound goes by several different name brands themselves, and uses Amazon, Ebay, Audiogon etc to flood the market with the same products. One of their other names is Doukmall. Their Customer Service is ALL handled by the same guy- he goes by 4 different female names that we know of; Vivian, Amy, Delores, and Maria. BEWARE.
- The problem with their amps is it is completely hit-and-miss. Is the engineering and design sound and safe? Hit and miss. About 50%. Never trust the photos, especially the (usual) one shot of the interior. One could contain all good quality caps, resistors, etc, and the next one could contain pure crap general grade low end components. On 4 of their amps, I personally have seen mix of outdated old dried up caps, etc. Most are are intentionally engineered to not be standard uf values and grades so we Americans and Europeans can not upgrade or improve their designs thru mere parts replacement from Mouser, Digikey, etc.
- Some of the more reputable Chinese companies, like Yaqin, are pretty CS and engineering oriented, and will always discuss with you improvements/mods and provide schematics. Not Nobsound and the their names they go by. They will not ever provide schematics. Some of the designs are point-to-point wiring mostly; some use a single small circuit board. Some of the smallest and least effective I've seen.
- Nobsound faux and plays ignorance when it comes to reading, understanding, and writing English. It's a old "used car salesman" marketing trick. Beware. They understand a lot more than they lead on to.
- One of the first products I, personally, ordered from them was a Digital Turntable thru Amazon. It was a almost empty case with a blank circuit board in it. Huge battle to get them to admit fault and at least send a finished complete circuit board I could DIY in for a finished product. Not funny. Come to find out overall, they do this intentionally to ruse western speaking paying customers. Almost a grey market policy.
- "Nobsound" is part of a Chinese third-party business conglomerate that runs several different small warehouses on U.S. soil, so they can say "It's located in the USA.". They use a cash flow operation to cycle and re cycle new, used, defective, and returned electronics. Your chances of getting something brand new, WITH good quality tubes or internal components is again hit-and-miss.
- I had ordered a NS-01 EL34 tube amp, personally, from them also as a part of a test to see what all of the previous research was saying. I can tell you personally what I got:
It was shipped from CA. It was used. It was marketed and sold as brand new. Externally it was not like the marketing photos. It had chemical scaring all over the silver top and faceplate. They at least used the "new" Himing Russian made EL34's (not Shaugang brand) but one of them the internal top of the filament was burned off. The VU meters were not for biasing but did not function at all. The single set of scag metal gold coated RCA jacks on the back were defective. After three hours of burn in the right channel failed completely.
Playing dumb, and keeping a record of all emails and messages, I reported this personally to them and went thru a 4 week battle of this "David" using female names screaming he hand made this amp and it was new. LOL. Some of the major Eretailers have all the records and are investigating themselves, and have told the company I work for that they have been doing so since Dec last year.
Get this- Nobsound under this name also included 2 pirated self-burned Chinese pop music CDs; one my companies anti virus software hit on as containing malware and a major Trojan virus.
Some of you more experienced hands on guys need to get several of these EL34 amps, under the names Nobsound, Doukmall, GemTube, and many other names (all the same mass produced amps) IF you can get a seemingly new one, and reverse engineer them not only for quality (quality of components excluded), but for safety and design. My tenured, close EE friend on the west coast with Hughes Aircraft won't even bother. He says they are all pure junk.
Also, whoever posted the suggestion in like the 2~4 post in this thread on the low-end amp suggestion with the tube cages around the tubes, it's the same deal. Model MS-10D. Its mass produced and sells under 6 different names. The tubes cages are pure thin cheap plastic. It IS NOT a pure tube amp. It's a cheap HYBRID. The mains are horrible low end transistors. The tubes are pre-amp only. It was like listening to a old school cheap transistor radio. After 2 hours of testing and use, the front plate was too hot to even touch including the knobs. The meter and everything would burn up and fry, or would not last more than a few months if that.
Oh also- wanted to say at least 1 or 2 of you pulled the trigger on one of the amps. But you need to take it apart and get the results to a good EE (Electrical Engineer) and see exactly how it was engineered and designed. The company I work for also uncovered the fact that the third party conglomerate 'Nobsound' is a part of employs a professional pure BS review writing company to write faux reviews on most of the major Eretailer sites. I believe it, Most if not all of the positive reviews I personally have read on their amps is waaaay too sugar coated.
Cheers
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Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
,
Well well well... There's a markedly better SQ when used as an integrated amp. For whatever reason when a preamp is driving the amp the SQ is thin and lacking bass. I used 2 tube pres and a ss one and adjusted the amp's vol every way I could. I'm not qualified to say why technically
As an integrated with stock Psvane tubes w/55hrs she is a very good mate for my modded Klipsch Forte and my single driver pair - No pops or crackles when turning on or off
With the Fortes the Highs are sparkling yet not shrill (8 out of 10) - Mids are... well, what the EL34 are known for, excellent (9) - Bass is a little lacking compared with good SS stuff unless you crank it up (7.5)
Sound stage wide and tall but not as deep as I've heard before (7.5)
If it doesnt blow-up this week I will keep it and replace the Vol controller
Part 2: Tubes matter :yes:
Tonight I put a full complement of Tung-Sol tubes in. Right off the bat the total SQ steps up but too soon to give full description
I went with a local guy's suggestions. I'm using KT66 power tubes, 6SL7GT & 5AR4
I'm thinking the KT66 are pushing the bass better :scratch2:
Later
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Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
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KKnight
Active Member
Tube rolling is not going to make a big difference till you pull the bottom cover and see what youve got in there for design, components, and pulling hen's teeth to find it's schematic. Also are all the tubes you're rolling matched?
What's the efficiency rating on your speakers?
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Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
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Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
The stock potentiometer is an Alpha B100K knock-off - fake
1. I desoldered the three wires from the board coming from the potentiometer
2. Removed the cheap RCAs from rear. They were connected to the potentiometer by the grey 3 way (R, L, C) wire
3. Replaced with a pair of good RCAs
4. Put a 100K ohm resistor inline with both the Right & Left input wire then soldered directly to board (maybe 50K are needed?)
5. Ran one common line from RCAs to board
Been playing a little over one hr... sounds good and best of all no problems
1. I desoldered the three wires from the board coming from the potentiometer
2. Removed the cheap RCAs from rear. They were connected to the potentiometer by the grey 3 way (R, L, C) wire
3. Replaced with a pair of good RCAs
4. Put a 100K ohm resistor inline with both the Right & Left input wire then soldered directly to board (maybe 50K are needed?)
5. Ran one common line from RCAs to board
Been playing a little over one hr... sounds good and best of all no problems
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drew_t
Well-Known Member
Not very impressive, IMHO. Cheap chassis, transformers with no labels or identifying markings that I can see. Don't like the PCB-mounted tube sockets. REALLY don't like the OT wires going through chassis holes that don't have grommets (safety issue). You better check to make sure there is an actual fuse in the fuse holder.
Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
