So, after digging around a while and seeing RGA / @Richard Austen mentioning this amp on basically every forum known to man as well as reading a few other people's impressions I was ready to take the plunge. I wanted a small tube amp for the office. Key word, wanted. Not needed. I have a quite formidable stereo here already which consists of Gustard DAC-X22, Dave Slagle AVC (WIP) and an Anaview AMS 1000-2600 based amplifier. Speakers are DIY home brew front ported cabinets that house Mark Audio Alpair 7 Gen 3 drivers. Simple little stereo that blows my socks off for near-field listening.
The speakers have been with me for going on 8 years now and have been the gatekeeper for nearly every piece of serious gear I've bought while in this hobby. From Class D amplification (multiple brands), a massive slew of DACs, a few tube preamps, cables of all sorts and more amplifiers than I care to even admit, some very nice 300B amps (Electra-Print anyone?). So to say I'm familiar with their sound is a gross understatement. They've gone toe to toe with many other speakers, both store bought and DIY builds. Speakers with drivers that cost 10x and more, including TOTL Scanspeak (with BE tweeter), TOTL SB Acoustics and many more (with BE tweeter). I think the fact that these are still in my office as the "guardians of audio" speaks for itself and I trust what I hear from them.
In any case, curiosity got to me and I went ahead and contacted King Ip from KingKo Audio about current pricing for his little raved about amplifier. I ended up sending him $875 USD (6850 HKD) which included 1 amplifier and 1 optional "red" faceplate. This was on early Monday (Hong Kong time) 10/8/2018. The amplifier arrived in my hands on Friday morning, 10/12/2018. This was quite fast as the amp went through the infamous Chicago ISC which I've had nearly every single package get held up for a week long time before. So I expected the delivery time to be a bit longer than a mere 4 days. I'm not complaining though.
I've read that the stock tubes were cheap Shuguang so on the day I ordered the amplifier I also placed an order for a full lineup of "better" tubes that consisted of 1) Tung Sol 5AR4, 2) Tung Sol 12AU7, 1) Tung Sol 12AX7 and a quad of Bendix 6094 w/adapters to replace the stock EL84. Everything arrived but the Bendix tubes as they were ordered from out of the country in Canada, and the adapters were ordered and are coming in on a slow boat from China. I don't know why I chose Tung Sol, probably because I've had good experience with them. I know they're not the end-all but since I'll be using the amp 9hrs a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year I figured I'd get some daily beaters. Not wanting to waste the NOS tubes that I'm sure I'll be ordering soon (not wasting the Bendix either). A quad of Tung Sol or JJ EL84 or something else will be in my future for daily beaters.
So here we are, the amp arrived and sounded quite nice right out of the box. King suggests to run it in for 150hrs before changing to any of the NOS tubes that he suggests as an upgrade, particularly changing out the 5AR4 rectifier with a NOS RCA 5U4G or NOS 274B. At the time of writing this I've got about 11hrs on the amp and I've noticed a bit of change already. Mainly that when it arrived it was quite tilted in response. The top it was clear and bright but lacking quite a bit of bass. Now this morning after a couple hours of warm up the bass is finally starting to come in, even at low volume. However, now the top end is slightly rolled off. Similar to a seesaw happening here, which is fine and to be expected. Though new amp, new tubes, it's hard to say what is doing what.
Midrange is VERY good on the amp already though. Quite different than my Anaview amp in that the midrange has a bit more "body" to it, a bit fuller sounding and a little more realistic, though perhaps this is a little exaggerated by the tubes, TBD. Jazz is exceptional with the amp too which is my main music I listen to daily.
Bass, as I mentioned is just now coming in so I won't comment on that too much, though I'll give further impressions when the 150hr mark has passed in a few weeks. What i'm hearing currently though is quite good.
Soundstage on the amp so far is good. Nothing crazy or above normal. Better width than depth but still quite decent separation of instruments and their layout from left to right. In comparison, my Anaview amp casts quite a bit larger and more solidly placed sound stage / image. I'm sure improvement will come with more time and break in.
At the moment I don't think it's quite the giant beater that it has been made out to be, but it's very good for what it is and is working great for what I bought it for. If it IS the giant beater to some, that's fine too, however I hold the Anaview in a very high regard as it's the most "class A" sounding class D amp I've had the pleasure of listening to. Things might change drastically with full burn-in and some NOS tubes as well as higher efficiency speakers though.
I'm hopeful that the amp continues to improve as time goes on. At which time I'll update my findings. For now I'm enjoying a very good and relaxed sound that is about as non-fatiguing as you can get. Quite enjoyable for all-day listening.
Below are a couple photos with stock faceplate, red faceplate and included tube cage. If anyone orders the red faceplate it actually looks red in the photos. However, it's way more PINK than it is red. Probably wouldn't have ordered if I had seen a better more accurate photo of it beforehand.
The speakers have been with me for going on 8 years now and have been the gatekeeper for nearly every piece of serious gear I've bought while in this hobby. From Class D amplification (multiple brands), a massive slew of DACs, a few tube preamps, cables of all sorts and more amplifiers than I care to even admit, some very nice 300B amps (Electra-Print anyone?). So to say I'm familiar with their sound is a gross understatement. They've gone toe to toe with many other speakers, both store bought and DIY builds. Speakers with drivers that cost 10x and more, including TOTL Scanspeak (with BE tweeter), TOTL SB Acoustics and many more (with BE tweeter). I think the fact that these are still in my office as the "guardians of audio" speaks for itself and I trust what I hear from them.
In any case, curiosity got to me and I went ahead and contacted King Ip from KingKo Audio about current pricing for his little raved about amplifier. I ended up sending him $875 USD (6850 HKD) which included 1 amplifier and 1 optional "red" faceplate. This was on early Monday (Hong Kong time) 10/8/2018. The amplifier arrived in my hands on Friday morning, 10/12/2018. This was quite fast as the amp went through the infamous Chicago ISC which I've had nearly every single package get held up for a week long time before. So I expected the delivery time to be a bit longer than a mere 4 days. I'm not complaining though.
I've read that the stock tubes were cheap Shuguang so on the day I ordered the amplifier I also placed an order for a full lineup of "better" tubes that consisted of 1) Tung Sol 5AR4, 2) Tung Sol 12AU7, 1) Tung Sol 12AX7 and a quad of Bendix 6094 w/adapters to replace the stock EL84. Everything arrived but the Bendix tubes as they were ordered from out of the country in Canada, and the adapters were ordered and are coming in on a slow boat from China. I don't know why I chose Tung Sol, probably because I've had good experience with them. I know they're not the end-all but since I'll be using the amp 9hrs a day, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year I figured I'd get some daily beaters. Not wanting to waste the NOS tubes that I'm sure I'll be ordering soon (not wasting the Bendix either). A quad of Tung Sol or JJ EL84 or something else will be in my future for daily beaters.
So here we are, the amp arrived and sounded quite nice right out of the box. King suggests to run it in for 150hrs before changing to any of the NOS tubes that he suggests as an upgrade, particularly changing out the 5AR4 rectifier with a NOS RCA 5U4G or NOS 274B. At the time of writing this I've got about 11hrs on the amp and I've noticed a bit of change already. Mainly that when it arrived it was quite tilted in response. The top it was clear and bright but lacking quite a bit of bass. Now this morning after a couple hours of warm up the bass is finally starting to come in, even at low volume. However, now the top end is slightly rolled off. Similar to a seesaw happening here, which is fine and to be expected. Though new amp, new tubes, it's hard to say what is doing what.
Midrange is VERY good on the amp already though. Quite different than my Anaview amp in that the midrange has a bit more "body" to it, a bit fuller sounding and a little more realistic, though perhaps this is a little exaggerated by the tubes, TBD. Jazz is exceptional with the amp too which is my main music I listen to daily.
Bass, as I mentioned is just now coming in so I won't comment on that too much, though I'll give further impressions when the 150hr mark has passed in a few weeks. What i'm hearing currently though is quite good.
Soundstage on the amp so far is good. Nothing crazy or above normal. Better width than depth but still quite decent separation of instruments and their layout from left to right. In comparison, my Anaview amp casts quite a bit larger and more solidly placed sound stage / image. I'm sure improvement will come with more time and break in.
At the moment I don't think it's quite the giant beater that it has been made out to be, but it's very good for what it is and is working great for what I bought it for. If it IS the giant beater to some, that's fine too, however I hold the Anaview in a very high regard as it's the most "class A" sounding class D amp I've had the pleasure of listening to. Things might change drastically with full burn-in and some NOS tubes as well as higher efficiency speakers though.
I'm hopeful that the amp continues to improve as time goes on. At which time I'll update my findings. For now I'm enjoying a very good and relaxed sound that is about as non-fatiguing as you can get. Quite enjoyable for all-day listening.
Below are a couple photos with stock faceplate, red faceplate and included tube cage. If anyone orders the red faceplate it actually looks red in the photos. However, it's way more PINK than it is red. Probably wouldn't have ordered if I had seen a better more accurate photo of it beforehand.
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