"Ian Iveson" wrote


I didn't say Chinese amps are bad. I just said my amps are better than
inferior Chinese ones. Being tautological, or close, I reckoned this
assertion would be unassailable.


It is - your amps would even be better than *Martian* inferor ones..??

The question is 'are your amps better than similarly priced Chinese amps?'
surely...??



Neither do I believe that Chinese imports are generally inferior or have a
bad reputation. Certainly amongst the clueless there is confusion, not to
mention xenophobia. There is often also a failure to know where China is,
and distinguish it from Taiwan or South Korea. Perhaps also there are some
impressions carried over from early experience with goods from Hong Kong.


Can't speak for anyone else but I'm fully aware where China is. (Also the
words 'Made In China' provide a reasonable clue... ;-)



But now the British audio press is full of praise for some Chinese
equipment.


I don't go by what the 'audio press' is or isn't saying - in anything, other
than 'technical stuff' and even then I'd check here before I took it
onboard...


Shanling springs to mind. There seems a growing consensus
that goods are suspect if at least the casework is *not* made in China, on
the ground that it must be poor value for money.

"Designed in UK, made in China" is an emerging paradigm, but this is just
more silly and pathetic Western snobbery.


Agreed.



I have never heard any Chinese valve audio equipment,


Aha!!

Why am I not in the least surprised to hear that?

Give me credit for making the effort/ spending the money to find out for
myself then. (As I *always* do wherever possible...)

snip interesting dissertation



http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/jaau...aaudio300b.htm

and looks as good, I'll order one - 400 quid OK with you (with
valves)...???

Absolutely not. I won't work with that grade of stainless steel for a
start


OK, an extra tenner for a bit of better steel then? :-)


.. Looks like my Chinese toaster (which incidentally blew a
fuse after scarcely a dozen crumpets).


Sounds like a case of 'over crumpetting' to me..??


Out of interest, our new toaster's ****e (toasts one side more than the
other) and it says 'Kenwood, England' underneath it! (I suspect it's Chinese
manufacture and being marketted by one of those firms who are a bit up
themselves about where they get their gear made!) Anyway, we're not too
bothered - it was only **CHEEP**!! :-)

Heh heh! :-)


Neither would it be worth my
while to use poor transformers or potentiometers. Three times the price
would get you acceptable quality. Five times for something close to
perfection, but not with 300B.


:-)

So you make the equivalent Mercedes cars then? - Tough **** for people with
only 'Ford' money, innit? (Or tough **** for you when everybody twigs a
Ford'll get the job done!! ;-)



Anyone who says an amp is so good they got another as backup lacks
credibility with me, BTW.


Who cares? I like a backup for *everything* electro-mechanical (within
reason, we don't need no 2 washing maches in the house) - it's born from my
own personal experience and has paid off more times than I care to
recall....

Let's get one thing straight - I make no claims for these amps other that I
think they are good (means nothing) and I consider them to be loopy VFM. The
amp you can afford sounds a lot better than any number that you can't
afford, in your own home, in my book. My point with these amps is that they
open the door for a lot of people to get 'into valves' who might otherwise
be put off by high prices.

FWIW, a number of visitors (including a couple here) put my 2A3 SET down as
my *best* amp - I don't give a rat's, I like them all....

Now *if* you live in Cambridge (do you? - it's a suspicion I've got) you are
welcome to come here (St Neots - 20 mins away) and hear the Chinese cheepies
for yourself.

What you made of them would be entirely up to you....?? (I only bought
some - I ain't got shares in them or anything... ;-)