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Chinese Manufactured Psvane Tubes - Applied.......

For those who may be interested, THIS lengthy writing IS ABOUT TUBES, an intigrated tube amp using Psvane KT88 power output tubes (and 4 other Chinese made tubes), and about an intigrated tube/solid state hybrid amp, and about Martin Logan Vista speakers.


GRANT FIDELITY RITA 880S
Reference Integrated Tube Amplifier
Currently for sale at $2,400...at or near importer cost due to exceptional, unfortumate health circumstances on the part of the importer). I own this amp. I venture to say that it is my opinion that it stands shoulder to shoulder with $5,000 to $10,000 amps. That opinion ios shared by the importer, who, if they have any left, is currently selling their stock in Canada at $2,400...their cost, or close to it. I paid $3,600 and I am thoroughly happy that I got what I did for that cost. If you can get one, brand new, with the 8 upgraded tubes and Psvane capacitors it comes with for $2,400, you are stealing.

So,

GRANT FIDELITY RITA 880S
Reference Integrated Tube Amplifier

versus

Magnum Dynalab MD309
Hybrid Tube/Solid State Integrated Amplifier
($8,900)

Hello Ian, and Rachel, (The owners - Grant Fidelity)

I was reading the comments and opinions (many of which struck me as very generalized and seemingly unsubstantiated) that were posted on the following Stereophile forum, (Stereophile Chinese-made Bargain Hi-Fi Forum:http://www.stereophile.com/cas2010/grant_fidelitys_chinese-made_bargains/index.html)about Chinese-manufactured audio equipment, and I felt "compelled" (remember the Exorcist?) to share my own personal experience about one of those Chinese components with those on the forum, my own Grant Fidelity RITA 880S3 that I purchased from you recently.

However, I do not wish to post anything that has errors of fact. My opinions are one thing, but I want to be sure that if I present anything as a fact, it is correct technically or otherwise. Would you mind vetting what I have written and letting me know if there is anything here that has been mis-stated so that I can correct it before I post it? I hope you don't mind and have the time to do so and let me know.



Here's the forum I'm referring to:

Stereophile Chinese-made Bargain Hi-Fi Forum:
http://www.stereophile.com/cas2010/grant_fidelitys_chinese-made_bargains/index.html

Here's my "personal experience" blerb...

Some of the comments and opinions I have read here appear to have been made by informed, intelligent persons, while others appear to be emotional, irrational and ill-informed. I’m not sure which category I’ll fall into, but for anyone who may be interested, I’ll share an experience that I have had with Grant Fidelity and one of the Chinese-manufactured items of equipment that they import, promote and distribute throughout North America.

After doing his research and due diligence, a hi-fi friend of mine purchased a Canadian manufactured 225 wpc, high-current integrated amplifier, the Magnum Dynalab model MD309 at $8,900. The company introduces this product as follows: “From our pedigree in pure analog circuitry, we're proud to introduce our most uncompromising 2-channel Integrated Amplifier. Using ...Hybrid-Acoustic CircuitryTM found in our MD-209 Audio Receiver, JJ 6922 Cryovalve tubes, and stocked with Magnum Dynalab's unrelenting build quality and audio engineering, the new MD 309 is a future-ready anchor for your high-performance home audio system. We believe it is the best Integrated Amplifier on the market.” For more about the validity of that statement, there are many reviews online about this and other products from this Canadian company, world renowned for making perhaps the best FM tuners in the world, and now applying their resources towards additional hi-fi components.

So, my friend brought over the Dynalab unit and we compared it head-to-head with my not-too-long-ago-acquired Grant Fidelity “reference integrated tube amplifier”, a “RITA-880S”, manufactured in China. The RITA-880S is a class A ultra linear design, utilizing a pair of Psvane A CV181-T (6SN7); a pair of 1960's Chinese NOS military grade 6SL7 tubes and 4 Psvane KT88-T output stage tubes, capable of 45 watts per channel from its 8 or 4 ohms taps. It weighs in at 115 pounds! (I have always been a believer that, in audio, “HEAVIER IS BETTER”. I once said something to that effect in front of 3 rather large women that I shared office space with at one time, and they immediately took me out for drinks and a VERY expensive lunch!)

Back to the story…We were set up in a terrific room, rather on the larger volume side, about 14 feet wide by 31 long and extending further to about 52 feet in total length, with vaulted ceilings in multiple directions up to 14 feet high and plenty of sound absorption contents. There is plenty of “room volume” here for big energy emissions.
We listened to numerous good quality CD’s on a well-regarded/well-reviewed player. The reasonably good quality speaker connect cabling was moved from one amplifier to the other so that there was absolutely nothing different in our evaluation other than the 2 amps. The speakers were however, going to be a good test for the amps…a newer pair of Martin Logan Vistas, extremely well matched to the room in that they were positioned about 13 feet forward from the rear wall (which has a 14 foot ceiling and what I believe to be an ideal mix of reflective/non-reflective surface areas). The Logans have a very low impedance in the upper end and for that reason, as well as others, they are considered by some to be a speaker that will easily demonstrate weaknesses in amplification stability and generally, weaknesses in any other system components as well.

Anyway, with some anticipation, we embarked on our little mission to discover the audible differences between the MD 309 and the RITA 880S…which we had both listened to previously… and away we went. Going in, I think we both fully expected the Dynalab, costing more than double that of the RITA, to be clearly superior in several areas. We expected to now find out just how much superior.

So,... here is the essence of our experience. The Dynalab played louder. On some, but ONLY ON SOME musical material, it had a perceptible advantage in reproducing a greater dynamic range of the music …but ONLY IF there was a lot of program content on the recording and if that content built up to a crescendo of one sort or another. The Grant Fidelity amplifier drove the Vistas (with the electrostatic panels that have very low impedance in the upper end, and which DO NOT have built-in amplification for the conventional cone speaker in the low frequency cabinet) to “normal”, “reasonable” and “adequate” listening levels for the various music we listened to…with more than ample volumes for what either of us would typically utilize. In all other respects - transparency, sound stage definition both side-to-side and front-to-back, low frequency performance and control (we did not use the sub that was on hand), background silence, nuance and detail… to our ears and perceptions… and with careful assessment and judgment, BOTH of us came to the conclusion that the 2 amplifiers sounded…IDENTICAL !

I would expect (?) that a professional audio industry reviewer with vastly more experience than the 2 of us, supported by sophisticated laboratory technical analysis of the 2 amplifiers, would be likely identify more subtle differences in the amplifiers than eluded us. HOWEVER, for us, in the real life environment in which our assessment took place, unless we were going to play music SO loud as to scare the hell out of our friends or family, the Grant Fidelity RITA 880S impressed us with its same ability as the Magnum Dynalab MD 309 to provide equally magnificent sound in every other sense. We clearly liked both of these amplifiers better than the excellent Canadian made Bryston or American made MacIntosh brands that each of us are familiar with (…aren’t we all?) Personal taste? Perhaps so. My son prefers the more analytical, brighter Bryston sound and I respect that preference.

My hi-fi friend and I are both very happy with what we bought. He simply prioritizes more money for this purpose than I, and for that, he got something more that I didn’t. But we are both going to be listening to virtually the same high fidelity sound. (With his bigger budget, he’ll have the new Martin Logan Montis, which, for now, I will only dream of.)

If you’ve stuck it out this far, would you please hang in a minute longer to allow me to make a point please?. It’s about how this whole thing started. It’s that, if given an “apples-to-apples” choice at essentially the same cost, I would RATHER support a Canadian or American manufacturing corporation and their employees and shareholders than a company in China. While Grant Fidelity is a Canadian importer, promoter and distributor of numerous brands of Chinese-manufactured audio equipment, as far as I can discern, they do not employ very many people in this country and therefore do not augment the Canadian economy very significantly in that respect. But with the service that they do provide, they have augmented MY economy by allowing me to get superb sound performance AND in doing so, in terms of the Dynalab amp, retain over $4,000.00 to allocate to other priorities in life, whether they relate to the enjoyment of music or otherwise. Consequently, that money I did not spend on some other amplifier that I felt I needed to satisfy my expectations...that money saved may ultimately benefit some other domestic or American manufacturer of audio equipment, or otherwise. So, thank you, Grant Fidelity, and China.

Footnote: My amp and speakers have only 158 hours on them at the time I am writing this..which is about double the hours when we did the testing. The sound seems to keep improving (as the “break-in” period continues). I could have bought Bryston, MacIntosh, NAD Master series, or any number of other amplifiers, and my hi-fi friend could have done the same…we listened to all of those and then some. They all sounded great. But I’m especially pleased with my choice and he with his. All I wished to do here by writing this is to share with those who may be interested, what a great experience I have had and continue to have thus far with my Grant Fidelity/Chinese amplifier, and how pleased I am with the sound quality that I’m enjoying for my hard earned dollars spent. (I feel just as good about the Martin Logan Vistas as well, but I do hope to someday up-grade to the new Montis model. I believe that those, paired up with the RITA 880S will be awesome!

References:

Magnum Dynalab MD309 Hi-Fi Plus Issue 69 Review: http://www.magnumdynalab.com/pdfs/IntegratedAmplifierReview-HIFI+69.pdf

Grant Fidelity RITA 880 (Predecessor to RITA 880S) Reviewed by Colin Smith colins@soundstageav.com Soundstage AV.com
http://www.soundstageav.com/onhifi/20081001.htm

Grant Fidelity RITA 880 (Predecessor to RITA 880S) Customer Review
http://grantfidelity.com/site/files/RITA-880promo2008-v5.pdf

Grant Fidelity RITA 880 (Predecessor to RITA 880S) Reviewed by Richard Austen of Constantine Soo’s Dagogo
http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=181

JungSon DA88Ti Integrated Valve Amplifier
http://www.avhub.com.au/images/stories/pdf/Jungson%20DA-88Ti%20Integrated%20Valve%20Amplifier.pdf?128958267846840000
http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=grant%20fidelity&mkt=en-ca&setLang=en-CA


Magnum Dynalab MD-309
integrated amplifier
Equipment Review
Oh yeah, Magnum Dynalab… the tuner company.
Except the MD-309 is entirely free from
tuners. Our ability to neatly compartmentalise
companies might mean the MD-309 hybrid
amplifier never gets the recognition it deserves,
because Magnum Dynalab is ‘the tuner company’ and not even
thought about as a maker of
anything not directly tuner related.
Which is a crying shame because it’s a really good amplifier.

It’s a hybrid design, using one of Magnum Dynalab’s
special CryoValve 6922 tubes per channel in the preamp
stage. This CryoValve treatment is a combination of grading
and enhancement to the standard valves, involving a 100 hour
stay at -196°C, 100 hours of ‘vacuum enhancement’ and a 100
hour soak test/‘annealing’ at 175°C. After each stage, batteries
of tests are run to determine the performance of the valve.
Whether the cryogenic process has any tangible benefit or
whether the process is just a series of very stringent gradings is
moot, because the end result is said to be better preamp tubes
than most, making a smoother, more dynamic sound… and a
longer-lasting one, too.

The power amp side is wholly solid-state, featuring 40
Sanken output transistors (10 per phase per channel), which
give the MD-309 a rated power of 225 watts per channel into
eight ohms. The big potted toroidal transformer that dominates
the inside of the 309’s case help give the amp a very stiff
power supply, evidenced by the doubling of power (450 watts
per channel) into a four ohm load. Of course, two rows of
heatsinks to keep those 40 transistors cool, added to a dirty
great potted transformer and a front panel that’s an inch thick in
places all adds up to one pretty damn big and heavy integrated
amp design. One that’s echoed in the remote handset; this is
essentially a standard oval button design using the Philips RC-6

remote codes. However, instead of retaining
the standard plastic fantastic handset,
MD has rehomed the remote PCB inside a
brushed alloy case that’s nigh on an inch
thick and weighty to boot. Overkill, perhaps,
but it all adds to the experience.
This amplifier design (known as Hybrid-
Acoustic Technology, according to the
company’s Director of Design, Zdenko
Zivkovic) uses the output transistors to act
as a current, rather than voltage, amplifier.
This spells a hybrid amp without output
transformers, and is uniquely different to
other similar hybrid designs (such as Pathos’
INPOL system), although those differences
are not immediately apparent.

There’s a common look between this
and the company’s top MD-109 tuner. Two
big blue sideways VU meters flanking a large
blue touch-screen and with two big knobs
at either side of the centre panel. And yes,
that faceplate is almost an inch thick of solid
aluminium. Understated it might not be, but
consistent… definitely. Both products add
a clever level of digital operation to what is
essentially an analogue product. In this case,
individual sources (three phono and two XLR
balanced) can be level matched at input,
home cinema processors and diagnostic
systems can be run at will.

The digital control unit is immediately
apparent because of that inches wide dark
blue on pale blue touch screen on the front panel. This rivals Audio Research’s
Reference preamps for across the room volume level readability, but also has
details of source and more on tap. You control source selection by the hard
right knob, the volume by the left and all other operations (including power
on) are controlled from the front panel. Which means – like Chuck Norris – the
MD-309 does not sleep. It waits.

Power on takes about 20 seconds of warm up from standby to music
playing. When adjusting volume level (or changing sources) there is a mild pitterpatter
sound from the logic driven gain control. There’s also the occasional
clicking of relays as you move from analogue to digital or back again. This is
nothing to worry about (in fact, it’s something praiseworthy as this switching
circuitry means less sonically deleterious components in the chain to get in the
way of the sound).

Then there’s the digital processor built into the amp itself. This is a Burr
Brown DAC with three digital inputs, including USB for computer audio
sources (sadly, this section is not in the photo sample). We suspect this is fast
becoming one of the standards for integrated amplifiers in 2010 and beyond –
in five years time, it might be virtually unthinkable to release an amp without a
USB-supporting DAC on board, such is the delta-v of this part of the market.

This is a mercifully unfussy amplifier design. Fancy mains leads… who
needs ‘em? Exotic supports… pah! I’m not saying the MD-309 won’t benefit
from a spot of audiophile obsessive-compulsive disorder (especially as those
plastic coated multi-way WBT speaker terminals cry out for thick wires to hang
out of them), but it doesn’t need such flummery to make a good sound. In
that way, it’s so Canadian in the manner of Bryston, Moon and co. And more
power to it for that. It didn’t seem to need much of a run-in, either. The tubes
need a few minutes to come on song, but the amplifier sounded good out the
box and stayed that way.

One functional niggle concerns the MD-309’s back panel. The coaxial
digital inputs are lined up in exactly the same direction as the line inputs, even
to the point of using little red and white collets around the gold WBT phono
sockets. This means if you are scrabbling round the back of the amp, you can
end up connecting a line source to the two digital coaxial inputs by mistake.
A good sign of a fine amplifier is its ability not to change dramatically in
performance when moving from input to input. Switching from a balanced
input to a single-ended one (both times using
the outputs of the excellent Lyngdorf CD-1
and the Esoteric X-05 tested in this issue,
using Cardas Clear for both XLR and phono
connection) highlighted how remarkably well
balanced this amplifier is handling both types
of input. This is remarkably rare in reality;
some amps (Electrocompaniet, for example)
are essentially balanced designs with singleended
inputs coming along for the ride,
others (Coda) seem to consider balanced as
an afterthought. The MD-309 handles both
with equal aplomb.
This is a very different sound to the
typical smooth, effortless musicality of many
products in the Audiofreaks portfolio. Those
after a big, black version of the conrad-
johnson sound will not find it here. Instead, it’s a more rhythmic, up beat
sound; not bright and not aggressive, but the kind of thing with a very taut,
deep bass that makes you want to put tracks with a bit of boogie on the CD
tray. It made even the most turgid white-boy reggae track (‘Something I Do’
from Robert Earl Keen’s The Rose Hotel) sounds almost like Toots and the
Maytals meets King Tubby.

It’s not just a rock-hound though. There’s depth, intellect and subtlety
behind the power and very tidy, deep, powerful bass of the MD-309. This,
coupled with plenty of detail, excellent dynamic shading and stereo separation
and good stereo soundstaging, makes for an amplifier that can cope with
pretty much anything you care to throw at it, whether that be Jack White
performing cruel and unusual experiments on a 50 year old guitar, John
Pickard’s modernist Flight of Icarus scaring the capacitors out of most amps
or Ben Webster helping to re-definine the term ‘cool’ in jazz, the MD-309 takes
it in its stride.

The built in DAC is extremely good, too. It’s not a step-change product
– no-one’s going to consider sidelining their dCS converter for what goes on
inside the MD-309, but it’s more than good enough. It was every bit as good
as the tones coming out of the Esoteric and improved on the basic Lyngdorf
sound by no small degree. USB too is good, but this section loses something
in comparison to some of the better USB-based DACs around; the little HRT
Streamer + is a more confident and temporally tighter sounding converter. As
a first outing to computer-based music sources, this is a fine introduction, but
it left Lowell George sounding as if he’d had a mild groovectomy when playing
‘Lafayette Railroad’ from Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken – something that wasn’t
apparent on either the regular digital audio or the analog inputs. Perhaps this
wouldn’t have been so apparent if the rest of the presentation was less funky,
of course.

For most users at this time, I suspect the mild limitation of USB input will
not be a great stumbling block. Instead, those who get past the fact that this
is an amplifier from a tuner company will find themselves listening to one of the
very best integrated amplifiers out there.

Magnum Dynalab MD-309
EQUIPMENT REVIEW
Technical
Specifications
Magnum Dynalab MD 309 hybrid
integrated amplifier
Inputs: 5 Analog (2 balanced XLR, 3
single ended including Surround Sound
Processor input), 3 digital (2 Coaxial, 1
USB)
Outputs: 1 line level pre-out
Output sensitivity: 1.2V RMS
Tube compliment: 2 x 6922 Cryovalve
Power Output : 225 watts into eight
ohms, 450 watts into four ohms
THD: 0.05% at any power
Frequency Response: 2Hz-100kHz
(+0dB, -0.25dB)
S/N ratio: -110dB, A Weighted
Dynamic Headroom: 3dB
Operational class: Class A/B (class A for
1-3watts)
Input Impedance: 10K
Output impedance: 2K (pre-out, after
volume control)
Dimensions (WxHxD): 48.3x16.5x51cm
Shipping Weight: 29.5kg
Price: £5,995
Manufactured by
Magnum Dynalab
URL: www.magnumdynalab.com
Distributed by
Audiofreaks Ltd
URL: www.audiofreaks.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)208 948 4153
+


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  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  


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