[Iain Churches]

"eponymous cowherd" wrote in message
...

I am a non-tuber thinking about becoming a tuber. What intrigues me the
most is that tubes are described as being non-fatigueing. I suspect that
my NAD 7225/KEF C30/cheap DVD player combination is fatigueing me,
though I have nothing to compare it to. I just know that I love my +100
CD collection, keep buying new CDs and just can't listen to music for
very long. Its not the music, because I love it. So I am thinking about
buying a tube amp and seeing if that's less fatigueing. But I don't have
a lot of money to spend, as you might have guessed from the age of my
components, and I don't have a lot of money to spend on what might end
up being a failed experiment. So I am thinking about buying one of those
$200 chinese tube amps from ebay and giving it a go.

I am not asking if these amps are good, I'm sure that there are armies
of ppl on the usenet waiting to lecture me as to the shortcomings of
inexpensive chinese products. I just want to know if these amps are good
enough to let me know if I was born a tuber or not. That's all.

The Chinese tube amp is a two-edged sword.

They are cheap enough to encourage people to buy one just to see
what tube audio is all about.

Their performance, and reliability is such that you will probably get
a poor, and also false impression of tube audio.

I have repaired several in the past year, which have been bought direct
ex factory via e-Bay. The have no warranty, and are certainly built down
to their (very low) price. They do not usually perform to their published
specs.

The Chinese can sell an amp including shipping for a sum of money less than
most OEMs pay for a set of output transformers. Caveat emptor.

Iain

[[email protected]]

On Sun, 8 Oct 2006 19:34:16 +0300, "Iain Churches"
wrote:


"eponymous cowherd" wrote in message
...

I am a non-tuber thinking about becoming a tuber. What intrigues me the
most is that tubes are described as being non-fatigueing. I suspect that
my NAD 7225/KEF C30/cheap DVD player combination is fatigueing me,
though I have nothing to compare it to. I just know that I love my +100
CD collection, keep buying new CDs and just can't listen to music for
very long. Its not the music, because I love it. So I am thinking about
buying a tube amp and seeing if that's less fatigueing. But I don't have
a lot of money to spend, as you might have guessed from the age of my
components, and I don't have a lot of money to spend on what might end
up being a failed experiment. So I am thinking about buying one of those
$200 chinese tube amps from ebay and giving it a go.

I am not asking if these amps are good, I'm sure that there are armies
of ppl on the usenet waiting to lecture me as to the shortcomings of
inexpensive chinese products. I just want to know if these amps are good
enough to let me know if I was born a tuber or not. That's all.

The Chinese tube amp is a two-edged sword.

They are cheap enough to encourage people to buy one just to see
what tube audio is all about.

Their performance, and reliability is such that you will probably get
a poor, and also false impression of tube audio.

I have repaired several in the past year, which have been bought direct
ex factory via e-Bay. The have no warranty, and are certainly built down
to their (very low) price. They do not usually perform to their published
specs.

The Chinese can sell an amp including shipping for a sum of money less than
most OEMs pay for a set of output transformers. Caveat emptor.

Iain



If you are into electronics at all. might want to buy a kit and make
your own tube amo. Then you might appreciate the real thing...