General Asylum

General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: I understand the China thing but... here is my take as a fan of Chinese high end equipment

Posted by Caucasian Blackplate on November 22, 2017 at 10:12:42:
Having repaired and bench tested 3 or 4 different Chinese tube amps every year for the last couple of years, I would say that I have yet to even have anything come across my bench that actually meets the manufacturer's specifications.

There's a good thread on another forum about the Yaqin MC-100B putting out about 18W (it's supposed to be 60W) with some other issues as well. The last Chinese amp I had on my bench was designed and distributed by an American company, and it was a push-pull EL34 amp rated at 45WPC at 5% THD. It made 3.5W at 5% THD (the amp was brand new, sealed from the factory).

A lot of the reliability issues I end up seeing are with power transformers not wound properly for US voltages and a little bit small for the intended use. They seem to go pop after about 4 or 5 years of normal use, and the steel covers put over them don't help. It's pretty brutal when I had someone a repair bill for $400 on their $650 Chinese amp, but it's worthless scrap unless they repair it.

The actual performance problems tend to come from poorly designed/manufactured output transformers. This is also something that can be fixed down the road.