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In Reply to: RE: China posted by RGA on June 17, 2014 at 03:02:13
Have you visited the HQ for Cayin in Zhuhai? They are the privatized company that used to build the electronics for the PRC Air Force. They build vacuum tube amps with less retro styling and less extreme audio with build quality similar to LM. They also do SS and digital products. They had a very good listening/demo room when I visited about 2 years ago. There to show off thier products driving Wilson WATTs among other high end speakers. Its only maybe 10 blocks from the Zhuhai Holiday Inn.
They also make a lower grade vacuum tube line (PP EL84, PP EL34, PP 300B) for the domestic Chinese market called Spark Zhuhai. You can see those tube amps in the higher end mall shops through out Zhuhai.
Follow Ups:
Yes I was at their dealer in Hong Kong where I auditioned the Mei Xing preamp through Cayin's flagship mono block power amps into B&W matrix 801s.
I think there are some good Chinese brands - and basically Triode Kingdom is correct - the ones who sell in the west and tend to last make very respectable to very good products. You can kind of tell by which importers and which dealers are willing to put themselves behind it. John Devore and Tone Imports use and bring in Line Magnetic so there is a degree of "vetting" (although I chanced it based on sound quality).
Audio Space, Antique Sound Labs, Melody, are examples of brands that have managed to last in the west so they're pretty safe bets at least that there is support and above average QC. Cayin is also on this list and I believe is one of the biggest makers in the field making OEM for other brands. Line Magnetic for example makes the Amplifiers for Triode Co out of Japan.
I read the Cayin review and measurements at Stereophile - the comments were excellent build and parts and it measured well too http://www.stereophile.com/content/cayin-50t-integrated-amplifier-measurements
The big thing I suspect is the transformer - start with a good transformer and it's pretty tough to screw it up - even if they are just copying 1950 schematics - today's parts quality with good proven designs and you add in the great paint jobs of the Cayin (the blue ones are great). I took some photos on my phone but I am at work and no cable to connect to the computer to show them.
The difference is that Cayin seems more interested in the higher power PP tube amp market (that is the emphasis) where Line Magnetic has those at the lower price range but their bigger emphasis is on SE.
Here is a picture of the Line Magnetic line (My amp is top left and Kloss's amp is back middle.
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