Scratched an itch today....
 

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!!!)

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Keith G" wrote:
[stuff]

Not bad value! Like it then? Let us know. You got it nice and cheap anyway!


I'm intrigued by my also-cheap YaQin. The circuit must be WELL
complex compared to most cheapy valve amps. I wonder WHY.

I mean it's push-pull, and has 4 o/p valves, BUT each o/p valve
is a DOUBLE triode.

The driver valves (1 per channel) are also double triodes.

There is also 1 more small double triode per channel, driving the
driver valves mentioned above.

There is one more small double triode shared between the 2 channels,
which I GUESS drives BOTH the "magic eye" level indicators.

There are a total of 18 triodes shared between both channels, plus
the "magic eye" indicators.

What are all those triodes (8 per channel in total) needed for?!


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk

Scratched an itch today....
 

Keith G wrote:
snipped
There are some fairly ropey snaps of it on my Show N Tell page:
snipped

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

Very nice Keith fancy one myself have you address or telephone number for
the guy?

Will be in his town Munchengladback in the next week or two know it well
lived there nine years

got married there :-(

lol


--
Dave xxxx
www.davewhitter.myby.co.uk

Music is Art - Audio is Engineering
Steam is Fun

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Fleetie" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote:
[stuff]

Not bad value! Like it then? Let us know.


Yes, indeed I do!

Like I said, when I switched it on, it came at me like silly great Labrador
and has been slobbering all over me for the last 11 hours!! :-)

It looks happy as Larry and is no warmer anywhere than 'comfortably warm'.
Hum is very low - negligible - and the whole thing looks very solidly built
(16 kg) and really quite well finished off. The trannies look quite
substantial through the ventilation slits - no guarantee of quality I know,
but the sound quality (specifically the bass) has already reassured me that
they aren't totally ****e. The valves do look a bit 'Chinese' (no offence,
Tat...) but they seem to be spot on. Too soon to make remarks about 'sound
quality' but I will say that if it was the only amp I had, I'd be *far* from
unhappy with it, believe me. (I'm quite tickled that the sound is more or
less *exactly* what I expected!)


You got it nice and cheap anyway!


Yes, that's the main appeal isn't it - these amps look to be very good VFM
and I can only say that, so far, it seems they most definitely are!! In fact
if it went tits-up I wouldn't change my opinion of it, I'd just fix it! -
Especially when me mate Shiny Nigel's brand new megabucks EAR834P (over £500
retail now, I believe and which he waited at least 2 sodding months for) ran
for a *whole* week before crapping out on one channel!! (This little bugger
comes with 12 months warranty any way - in German!! ;-)

Incidentally SN's shop has got a Copland in that's had a valve *burst* (???)
inside it, apparently - he reckons it looks dead cheesey inside, no apparent
'quality' anywhere!!!???


I'm intrigued by my also-cheap YaQin. The circuit must be WELL
complex compared to most cheapy valve amps. I wonder WHY.


Yes, it's a mystery - why 'over-egg' the pudding? I'm afraid I don't know
nearly enough about them (yet) to offer a meaningful suggestion.



I mean it's push-pull, and has 4 o/p valves, BUT each o/p valve
is a DOUBLE triode.


Possibly/maybe 'cross-wired' (or whatever the correct term is) - ie both
triodes in the same envelope 'commoned'...??



The driver valves (1 per channel) are also double triodes.

There is also 1 more small double triode per channel, driving the
driver valves mentioned above.


One set will be the phase-splitters (?)....

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Dave xxxxx" wrote in message
...
Keith G wrote:
snipped
There are some fairly ropey snaps of it on my Show N Tell page:
snipped

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

Very nice Keith fancy one myself have you address or telephone number
for
the guy?



Eee, David, you're a bugger for 'new toys', ain't ya!! :-)

OK, it was an eBay transaction but the firm's website (nur Deutscher) is:

www.proelektra.de

and the chap who has emailed me is Peter Nagel (Mit freundlichen Grüßen!
:-)

Sod it, I've just bought a cheapie sub (eBay No. 5723657420) from them as
well, hoping it will also be up to snuff. (AV use only, so who cares....??)

Now, I have to point out that I got this amp for £240 all up (ie about the
price of a really good PS trannie.....) but that same firm had one up for
£289 'Buy It Now' also plus £25 shipping. I hate to say it, but I found out
only last night (November HFN, page 122) that the 'Affordable Valve' nutter
is also doing them for £250 delivered with 1 years guarantee or £300
delivered with 2 year's guarantee....???


Will be in his town Munchengladback in the next week or two know it well
lived there nine years

Well, if you *do* get to meet Peter Nagel, tell him I'm well chuffed and
thank him for the quick delivery! :-)



got married there :-(

lol


Still laughing? - Can't be too bad then can it?

;-)

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message

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.....)

What's under the other cage besides undersized transformers?

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote in message

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.....)

What's under the other cage besides undersized transformers?


A tool roll...... :-)

Scratched an itch today....
 

Keith G wrote:


It looks happy as Larry and is no warmer anywhere than 'comfortably warm'.
Hum is very low - negligible - and the whole thing looks very solidly built
(16 kg) and really quite well finished off. The trannies look quite
substantial through the ventilation slits - no guarantee of quality I know,
but the sound quality (specifically the bass) has already reassured me that
they aren't totally ****e. The valves do look a bit 'Chinese' (no offence,
Tat...) but they seem to be spot on.

none taken ... but what does a Chinese vale look like?
As opposed to say, a Russian Svetlana valve?


Too soon to make remarks about 'sound
quality'

warm, full of character, detailed?

;)

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote in message

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.....)

What's under the other cage besides undersized transformers?


A tool roll...... :-)

Very good. The coffee cup was dry so my monitor didn't get a bath!

;-)

Scratched an itch today....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote in message

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.....)

What's under the other cage besides undersized transformers?


A tool roll...... :-)





DVM, leads & screwdriver eh?