Putting together a new home audio system...

New amp came today

Decided to give this a try, since the reviews are good, and the price can't be beat. It's a Chinese hybrid -- tube pre-amp, and solid state output. 85 watts per side, 4 Chinese tubes on the pre. The model is a Yaqin VK-2100. $300 delivered by the hot mail lady.

I got it from Canada HiFi Online, which I imagine is where yer getting some of your stuff drzinc. I ordered it Monday night, and Song shipped it Tuesday, and I got it today

I have no shelf to put it on yet, so I brought in the Berry's to make a stand over the sub. The Onkyo is being used in pre-amp mode direct to the amp, so I can utilize the phono pre-amp in it. It sounds incredible, without even being broken in yet! Very spacious sound, it widens it up so you don't feel like yer in a room -- more like a concert hall. I'll be listening to a few albums tonight, for a better report...


BTW, I was having a balance problem, because there's a closet off on the left wall (32"), yet a full wall on the right. So I brought the left speaker closer to the wall by about an inch, and moved it about a foot forward. Balance is right on now, albeit it looks a little weird with one speaker a foot in front of the other...

Anyway, here's a couple pics. I'm gonna order a tube phono pre-amp from them next week, since their service seems great...

Day 2 into the new amp, and loving it

This thing gets better by the hour, and has some incredible dynamic range! I just did the first disc of Billy Joel's Greatest (VI & II), and it was amazing, considering the price of the amp. Captain Jack was a standout (one of my favs) -- dead silence, to a full blown hard on!

The American and Euro folks should be scared -- the Chinese are making some very nice sounding stuff, put together just as good, and 1/3 rd the price...

Day 3:

Finally starting to crank the amp up -- up to 11 o'clock on the volume now! Way loud.

This thing's got some serious mid-range punch. Vocals and horns really shine, and I'm amazed at the quality of the CD deck -- it's very analog sounding with the #4 filter on. Probably the best sounding sub $1000 CD player I've ever heard. On the flip side, bad mixdowns sound worse :sqerr:


I ordered a turntable pre-amp, another Yaqin Chinese model. It's tube based, with 2 x 12AX7s. And I also ordered a pair of high end Chinese speaker cables, to give them a try.


So far, I have 3 sets of speaker cables, and they all sound totally different -- like night and day. Don't believe people who say all cables are the same -- with all other things being equal, there's a HUGE difference in what you hear. I'm not saying more expensive is better, but try a few cables, and you'll note the differences quickly.

BTW, for reference purposes, I've been using the same 3 CDs for testing all this gear... I listen to others, but the serious listening tests use the same 3.

They are all Elton John CDs, as I've found the clarity of the mixes to be among the best I own.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Captain Fantastic (SACD stereo and RBCD mixes)
Rocket Man (greatest hits thingy)


All 3 were produced by Gus Dudgeon, and share the same sonic qualities, although they have different remix engineers. I'm taking a wild guess here, that Gus had final say in all mixdowns...

Day whatever with new amp:

Thing gets sweeter sounding each day -- much impressed with this Chinese stuff (I was gonna say Chinese junk, but it is proving itself to be worthy, and easily a match for some of the big name US/UK brands)

I was expecting the new tube phono pre-amp to arrive today, but apparently it has had to undergo a pat down/full body scan through customs or some such sh_t...

With all the fear that runs rampant these days, if you stuff something with wires and tubes in a box, and try to ship it across a border into the US -- some clown will want to inspect it. Big "thanx" to the US government for giving in to the terror dudes, and making us live in a world of fear... :sqerr:


Anyway, system sounds great, and looks a heck of a lot better than Canute's tweeters (and costs less)...

More goodies came...

New tube phono pre-amp (Yaqin), and new speaker cables (Chinese too, YWW). Superb sound out of the pre-amp, and now the turntable sounds far superior to the CD player! The speaker cables are awesome, removed whatever little noise was left, and sound crystal clear and open.

Only one item left -- the subwoofer. That's going to be a matching Wharfedale I think...

All told, so far I've spent about $2k (minus the sub). The sound is incredible for that price range, and this Chinese stuff is really amazing! Now I have to build some sort of stand for that double glass plate that holds the amp and phono pre-amp. Also, for S&G, I'm gonna try bi-amping it out, using the Onkyo for the lows, and the Yaqin for the highs.

Here's some pics -- note the Morgan silver dollars leveling the turntable out -- keeps the germs away too...

Was chatting with a buddy yesterday, who had seen some of these pics -- and he asked me if I filled my speaker stands. He didn't believe what I put in there, so while I was cleaning today, I took a pic, since they are not glued together

I originally had 5 full soda cans in each one, since that was what was handy when I put them in the man cave. Then I got to worrying about them possibly exploding due to the heat, since the stands are black, and exposed to the sun during the day. So I put jars of pennies in there.

I think there's about 20 pounds worth in each stand, although I have no clue how much that is. So if anybody decides to rob my house, don't forget the stands...

Update:

I bi-amped it out last evening -- 3 times back and forth.

The sound was exceptional, but I'm concerned about driving those little tweeters with 85 watts per side. I used the Onkyo for the lows, and the Yaqin for the highs. So that's about 200 watts per side total, plus another 150 for the sub. Power draw is about 210 watts through the Kilo-watt meter.


So, I backed off back to full range off the Yaqin, and replaced the Monster patch cables between the speaker posts with 3" sections of solid Romex. The solid cable gives a much nicer mid, but loses a bit on the high end.


I have a whole lot of .999 silver, so I'm tempted to melt some of it down, and try making some connects for the speaker bi-wire connects just for S&G...

jokerswild said:

Well there shoots your warrenty..... can't send em back now... ya done voided it..... :tritongue:

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Man, you are just major groaning it today...


BTW, funny thing -- I've only used a warranty once in my entire life. A large CFL bulb I used for growing my "tomatoes" back in the day. Stopped working after about 6 months, so I called them, and they said send it back, and we'll take a look. They couldn't figure out why it stopped working either, so they sent me a new one.

Other than that -- I just buy a new one when something breaks -- tax write off


Oh, and the speaker interconnects are external, so they wouldn't know if I changed them anyway. I just put the little gold thingys back on.

Just for S&G, I bought another pair of speakers...

NewEgg was having a sale, and I picked up a pair of Polk Monitor 70's. My object was to have one pair of speakers connected to the Onkyo's mains for watching movies without having to turn on the tubes, and the Wharfedales connected to the tubes for listening to music.

So they came today -- heavy beasts, took me a while to walk them up the stairs, since there's really nothing to grab onto, except the bass port at the bottom :sqerr:


Anyway, here they are, and they sound sort of amusing -- ok, but not even in the same universe as the Wharfedales...

Latest update...

Got new speaker stands for the Wharfedales, and another shorter set to hold the amp up

The sound of the Polks has improved substantially as they break in -- still not in the same league as the Wharfedales, but work great for the tuner and for movie playback, so I don't have to waste tube life during those times. They were very harsh at first, but are now mellowing out just fine

What's interesting, is running both amps, and both sets of speakers at the same time -- there's a slight delay, and it sounds really cool on some esoteric stuff like Floyd and Radiohead.


The phono preamp is currently out of service, as one of the tubes was ringing a bit, so I'm awaiting a replacement set I ordered...

Just another update...


Did some tube rolling on the hybrid amp, and sounding awesome now


I originally tried some 12AX7LPS's (Sovtek) in the center positions, but they were hissing and ringing, although they sounded nice. So I ordered some JAN Phillips 12AT7WC's (1986 production), and they are SWEET!

I also took off the stupid little metal wire thingys they had holding the tubes down -- absolutely worthless.


I have a set of 8 6N1-T's on order now from Beijing (for the outside tubes and spares) -- these are NOS circa 1970 for China's space program. It's funny when you think about it, China's space program in the 70's, consisted of a bunch of ICBM's aimed at US -- so these tubes were designed to blow me up...


The whole system sounds absolutely fabulous for the price paid, and I can easily recommend these amps and the Wharefdale speakers. The Onkyo SACD player is fantastic sounding, if you can deal with the load time (which I can easily do)

Fred Wright said:

Bro,

If you can find the NOS, you might try a pair of Telefunken AX7s in that preamp. Tube tone doesn't get better than Telefunken.

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I ain't got that kinda money Bro :sqerr:

Those Tele's go for hundreds, if not thousands these days!



Anyway, I had to yank the 12AT7's, as like the AX7's, they started hissing, and made scratching noises when I moved the volume knob. Sounded great though!

The 12XXX series are 12.6 volts, whereas the 6N1's are 6.3 volts. The circuit board in the amp is labeled with 12AT7's on the inside, and 12AU7's on the outside -- but I guess it depends more on the circuit, and whether it is parallel or series wired. There are different variants of this amp, shipped to different countries, but they all have the same lettering on the circuit board...


Anyway, my ICBM tubes came from Beijing today, and I rolled them in (only 9 days from Beijing to NY -- not bad)

Extremely quiet compared to the stock Chinc tubes that came with the amp. Much mellower sound, yet crisp on the top end, and a better sound stage. So far I'm liking these the best, although I ordered some tubes from somewhere in the Ural mountains of Russia, that are old 60's stock, and also 6.3 volt to try...

Tube amps are much more fun than SS -- you can change any part of the sound easily...