Have you ever brought a Chinese power amplifier?

[GlamrLama]

A previous company I worked for had the main measuring instrument they produced cloned by a Chinese manufacturer and sold only in China at a significant discount. The company eventually bought that company making the clones and they themselves made that knock off of their own product product for the Chinese market.

 

[peterp1]

I've only owned a few small Tube amps made in China. What i liked was the superb chassis work! The SQ was just so-so.

I had the same experience with my Yaqin amp -- incredible build quality but poor sound on the stock tubes, even after a month of tube burn-in. After upgrading all the tubes (pre and power) to new issue Mullard, it is my favorite amp. You may try changing tubes if you haven't already and still have the amp.

More generally, I've also had great experiences with tiny SS amps from Nobsound and Fosi -- sounding great despite small size and price tag. I've generally been more impressed with Nobsound than Fosi (though still liking both), but Nobsound seems more difficult to find (at least on Amazon) these days.

 

[Christian B]

Yes, and my German designed Chinese built Vincent hybrid integrated amp sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Pio1980]

That is the one I was typing bout.

Pretty decent product that didn't need the baggage of a misappropriated badge.

 

[kirk57]

Patents expire and you can't blame manufacturers for picking these units to produce clones. Look at the clones of the ST-70 and ST-35 Dynaco's. begs the question if it's just a beef with the Chinese doing it

It does beg the question, but somehow I doubt that’s what you were actually try to say.

 

[twiiii]

Well, its been Mcintosh since 1962. Oh I had some additional Scott and Fisher pieces and some Crown gear, but its been 100% Mac from 65 to 75 and from 1990 to today. Thats 43 years, Two amplifier repairs were necessary. Input capacitor on one of my MC 275's and a Meter just recently on my first MC 207. I have had single repair on my C-34 and the C-28 always had mechanical issues, so got a C-29 when I could. Out of the 6 Mac tuners I have had only the MR-80's touch buttons needed rebuilding by Audio Classics 17 years ago and she still works like new. The MR-7084 I bought used is still working like new. She came to my house in 2017 to listen to talk radio, which I seldom do now. In fact most of my radio listening is by streaming over the internet. The MPI-4, needed a new tube after 50 years of service. Just so you know the Crowns had to be rebuilt by the factory every 6 years or so and the Scott and Fisher pieces needed tubes after 180 days more or less. And they never met their own published specs from day of purchase. They were true mid fi pieces.

 

[DiggyGun]

I use a SMSL SA300 amp, which is Class D, in my office system. It is very good for a small unit and good value for money.

One of my friends listened to it and liked it so much, that they got the SMSL AD18 amp.

DG…

 

[cpt_paranoia]

Well, its been Mcintosh since 1962.

Is this Chinese McIntosh...?

 

[KingBubba]

I bought three little Chinese amps that came from Douk or Alibaba, I believe. They were small and cheap and perfect for Bathroom setups. Having an amp or two in the bathroom is so unnoticeable that I have never had any crankin' about it from my wife. Two are volume only and one has treble, bass, volume, balance and speaker switch. IIRC it was $12. I am fully satisfied with what I got except the 3 week wait. I got them when the 3116 chip was popular.

 

[lini]

A power amp might use one, but it doesn't make a power amplifier...

On a funny side note, just for your interest: Quite a few years ago Jan Meier, the man behind the Meier Audio headphone amps, actually did offer an opamp-based power-amp. Unfortunately I don't remember the model name anymore and neither, whether he only offered that thingy as a kit or also ready-made, but in any case its output stage consisted of 44 LM6171s for a whopping output power of 35 W. A really funky design, I thought.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini