The Willsenton R8 has gone to a second iteration in 2024 which has somewhat better components than the first gen model (the earlier version had really cheap resistors that had insulation that were chipped. The newer version appears to use the same brand of resistors but none were chipped). It still has some issues, notably the volume control is too sensitive. The amp gets super loud at the 9:00 position. Also, the amp is quite sensitive to noisy 6SL7 tubes. If you install a noisy 6SL7 tube, the volume control makes a scratchy noise when you adjust the volume, why I don't know. The odd thing is that these same "noisy" tubes are usually dead silent in other amps.
The amplifier always defaults to Input 1 when powered on, which is a headache if you use other inputs often. The stock tubes are mediocre. Surprisingly, the tubes in my amplifier was closely matched. I purchased another R8 and was somewhat surprised that the OEM KT88s were obviously from different manufacturers, one set has Shuguang tubes and the other appeared to be Psvane. Note that the OEM tubes appears to be the cheapest tubes they make, selling for about $140/quad in China. They don't sound bad but they tend to be pretty bright with hardly any bass. Stepping up to more expensive tubes make a remarkable improvement in sound.
The biggest headache for the Willsenton (as well as the Muzishare) amps is their crappy bias potentiometers. The OEM pots are known to fail and when they do, it will usually take out a tube as it red plates as well as damage the amplifier. I strongly recommend that owners replace the OEM pots with either Vishay or Bourns 20K pots. It is not that difficult if you have soldering skills. I had two pots fail, one in the R8 and the other in the Muzishare X7. Luckily, I was able to power off the Willsenton before the tube red plated too long. Unfortunately, the X7 took out an expensive Gold Lion KT88. If you peruse Amazon reviews, you will see an alarming amount of buyers reporting their amp went up in smoke, including the newer updated model.
I also have a 22yo Conrad-Johnson MV60 Power amp and a matching Conrad-Johson pre-amp (can't remember model number) and can say the R8 comes pretty close to the CR sound. The CR is on it's last legs, the chassis and amp is rusted pretty badly and occasionally blows fuses.
The R8 originally sold for about $800 when released several years ago and the price is now $1500. Who knows how much it's going to be when the tariffs jack up the prices. Amazon still sells them for $1450 while stock lasts, I see some Chinese sellers are now asking almost $2700 for the R8. At that price, i would look elsewhere. Another factor is that vacuum tubes are getting more expensive, good vintage tubes are getting scarcer as inventory dries up from demand. When I bought my R8 I was able to find Sylvania 6SL7W tubes for $30 and decent vintage EL34s for $60, now these same tubes are going double to triple that. Current production tubes don't sound as good and also have a shorter tube life. The Russian manufactured tubes have not updated their design since the original release. Only China is making newer designed tubes and the so sound pretty good, but their QC and reliability is suspect. More alarming is that their tubes are not sold as matched sets (even though they claim to be matching with accompanying "certificates", when i measured the tubes, their numbers are all over the place. IMHO, Psvane is notable for poor quality and bad specced tubes).
