I've been seeing these really cheep Ch*nky amps on eBay for quite a while
now and have often wondered what they were 'really' like for the money.

Then one turned up that looked a bit more 'workmanlike' than most with a
loopy starting bid of £189 + P&P (See Item No. 5722517133 if it's still
available) and after a little bit of argy-bargy with some dim 'Johnny No
Scores', who had to be dealt with, it was mine for the princely sum of £215
+ £25 P&P from Germany and has arrived in 3 working days. (UK suppliers take
note.....)

(Why do these eBay noobies bid up on items that are brand new and in
plentiful supply? - If this **** had bid first I would have passed it by,
but as I saw he had already treated himself to a 'live steam' train set, I
thought he'd already had enough new toys for the moment!! :-)

Anyway, it arrived this morning - beautifully packaged with chunky styrene
inserts and double-boxed with plastic strapping that had been cunningly
overtaped, hiding the metal crimps that confounded my attempts to cut the
straps with Swim's serrated knife for a while. (With a bit of luck she won't
notice..... :-)

Off with the cage (you know - those cages which only cost an extra 80 quid
or so from even people like World Audio Designs....), off with the bubble
wrap which was lovingly placed round the EL34s (I wonder how many people
leave it on??) and plug the bugger in.....

Wah! - It came at me like a mad thing and has been on (loud) for over 7
hours now! Plain as a nun's knickers in spray-painted black, with a single
input only (just how I like 'em) but tapped for both 4 and 8 ohms, it is
very NAD-like in overall appearance and build quality levels. The 'sound
quality' is almost exactly what I suspected and I think/hope this'll do well
on my DM2As. (With these eBay prices, or if you are able to toss one
together yourself, it's cheaper to change the amp than the speakers!!)

There are some fairly ropey snaps of it on my Show N Tell page:

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/keith_g/show/show.htm

....if anyone is curious - see 'cheapychinky01 - 09' jpgs!

I've actually got it with the intention to 'reverse engineer' it (half the
price of the equivalent parts!) but I might just leave 'as is' for a good
while yet - it really is quite pleasant and very pokey - punches well above
its weight!

(MTBF? - I'll let you know, it's going to get 12 hours straight for openers!
:-)

Btw - don't you just love the 'Power' indicator lights these valve amps have
on them - see:

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/keit...ow/lighton.jpg

- it's the little green one, bottom left!! :-)

(Apologies for lazy 'handheld' 1.7 second exposure!!!)