No way. Give it some time to burn in, order some spare tubes (what you can afford) and use the stock tubes as spares later on.
Chinese amps
- Thread starter Timl
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- reisong a12 yaqin mc-84l
Many years ago, before I bought my MC-84L in 2018, they used to come stock with Russian tubes and people seemed to be pretty impressed with them. They switched to Chinese tube by the time I bought mine.
I wasn't impressed with the sound on the stock Chinese tubes at all. I ran the the stock tubes for about a month and didn't notice any benefit with burn-in. Then I replaced the preamp tube with Mullard new issues, and there was a big bump in sound quality. I later did the power tubes with Mullard new issue, and noticed a similar bump in sound quality.
I hate to discourage you because this is a very special amp in my opinion with the right tubes, but I have to be honest that I didn't like the sound until the tube upgrade. A few thoughts:
- If you can eventually upgrade tubes, you can certainly survive with the Chinese tubes
- Maybe you can swing just replacing the preamp tubes to start -- I really liked the amp after doing just the preamp tubes (though outputs improved further)
- Maybe talk to the seller and see if they can replace the stock with better tubes for an upgrade cost (presumably upgrading what was included would be cheaper than replacing the stocks, though you'd need to be sure the upgraded tubes are legit/real)
tubelectron
Super Member
About Chinese amps, I have seen superbly built ones, and poorly designed ones... No matter the brand : it only depends on the sponsor requirements.
Two of my DIY SE Tube amps uses Chinese output transformers, and I can tell you that they are mighty fine in their performances, both in listening and in measurements.
T
Two of my DIY SE Tube amps uses Chinese output transformers, and I can tell you that they are mighty fine in their performances, both in listening and in measurements.
T
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Gigantic
A big, big love
Chance are, it will sound fine with the stock tubes, as long as you don't know what you're missing.
I'm not sure I understand that temperament. Not criticizing it at all, but don't really understand the objection to following up the amp purchase with tubes if you aren't happy with the sound (since it doesn't sound like budget is an issue). Where would you buy the MC-84L from? As I suggested earlier, it wouldn't hurt to ask the seller if they will ship it with better tubes for an upgrade price. That should end up being cheaper than replacing tubes while also meeting your "one and done" purchase preference.
Tubes will eventually require replacement, and I did have a Mullard new issue tube fail early that I had to replace, so there can be some fiddling required with tube amps. The amp itself is very well built, so I expect the Yaqin to have more longevity than most of my modern SS components, but the occasional tube replacement will be required.
What receiver would you be replacing with the Yaqin? I used the MC-84L to replace a very high end 1990's SS amp (probably 8 times the cost of the Yaqin when new). I didn't like the MC-84L with the stock tubes (an audible downgrade to my ears, even after long burn-in). After the Mullard upgrade, I never looked back (even felt that way during "stage 1" of just replacing the preamp tubes).
With upgraded tubes, I couldn't more highly recommend it. On stock tubes, I wasn't impressed. I wish I could say different, but that was my experience. Hopefully others will chime in with their experience on the stock tubes.
I'm not sure I understand the temperament either.
I just know I have a long trail of tears from making wholesale changes to fix issues, only to make the tangle worse. And I'm not saying no forever to new tubes, just to start. The unit would replace a NAD receiver from - IIRC - the very late 90s. Anyway, I take your guidance seriously. Also, the fact that the unit is in service after a number of years is heartening. I've always worried about the durability of Chinese hi-fi.
Thank you very much!
s.