YAQIN MC-13S EL34 (6CA7) 4 Vacuum Tube Integrated Push-Pull Amplifier (Silver)

[DancingSea]

Has anyone heard this tube amp?

 

I find it eminently intriguing.  74 mostly very positive reviews on Amazon.  $699 for 45 lb amp that must cost $2000 or more if made by an American or European tube amp manufacturer.  Thoughts?

[GUTB]

My view is....if you're going tubes, and you're buying from China, you might as well go straight to direct-heated (DHT) SETs like the 2A3, 300, 845, 211, etc. 2A3 and 300 are good for 92+ db efficiency speakers, 845, 2011, etc  for lower efficiency speakers. I've seen people who say that 845s is the king of all SETs, but I haven't compared my own 845 with any other DHT SETs so I wouldn't know for sure.

 

If you don't want to mess with DHT yet, look for KT150 amps, I hear those are quite good. I'm not sure if KT88/120/150 tubes are interchangeable, though, so I don't know if you can just get a KT88 amp and install KT150 tubes in it.

 

Also, if you're going to buy from China, you can save a lot of money by going to their direct online sales outlets, for example: http://www.china-hifi-audio.com/en/yaqin-tube-amp-audio-c-14/yaqin-mc-13s-tube-6ca7-t-push-pull-hifi-integrated-amplifier-p-353

 

There's also hifi-exquis.com, shenzhenaudio.com, etc.

[zackthedog]

10 hours ago, DancingSea said:

Has anyone heard this tube amp?

 

I find it eminently intriguing.  74 mostly very positive reviews on Amazon.  $699 for 45 lb amp that must cost $2000 or more if made by an American or European tube amp manufacturer.  Thoughts?

 

Certainly a lot of good reviews from what appear to be experienced audiophiles.  There's nothing wrong with Chinese tube products, they can be a terrific bargain. With free shipping (if you're a Prime member) and a return policy, what's to lose?  A better set of tubes will cost a couple hundred dollars extra and probably improved the sound considerably.

 

I use Chinese transformers in my DIY amps, and they're extremely good.

[gmgraves]

On 3/25/2017 at 10:29 AM, DancingSea said:

Has anyone heard this tube amp?

 

I find it eminently intriguing.  74 mostly very positive reviews on Amazon.  $699 for 45 lb amp that must cost $2000 or more if made by an American or European tube amp manufacturer.  Thoughts?

 

I'm with Zakthedog on this one. Given Amazon's policies, you can hardly go wrong. Prime members get free shipping, and they stand behind their products. I can't imagine the problems one might have if a Chinese sourced amp turned out to be defective on arrival and you had to send it back!  While buying direct from China can possibly save you some money over Amazon's selling price, shipping costs from China on something weighing 45 pounds ($165 via DHL) will more than make up for the difference.

 

I once had a pair of VTL monoblocks and they came with Chinese tubes. I found the tubes to be very poorly made. The output tubes, which have a phenolic base glued to the glass envelope, came apart if you tried to remove the tubes from their sockets when lifting them by the glass. The bases would stay firmly in their sockets while you would end-up with the glass envelope in your hand trailing broken leads! I ended up replacing all of the Chinese tubes with NOS JAN versions from WWII. I bought a lifetime supply of 'em from a ham radio guy who bought dozens of the type (807s) and sold them to me for a buck apiece. Much better. Of course, this was probably 20 years ago, and build quality on the Chinese brands has probably improved considerably since then.

 

I've never heard this particular model, that you are contemplating but I have a friend who has a Yaqin MC-100b dual-mono (complete with separate power transformers for each channel) "integrated" amp. It's impressively made (and gorgeous to look at) and sounds superb. He paid something like $700 for it and is very happy with it. 

[DancingSea]

Cool, its all very intriguing...

[Melvin]

 

On 3/25/2017 at 11:37 PM, zackthedog said:

There's nothing wrong with Chinese tube products, they can be a terrific bargain. With free shipping (if you're a Prime member) and a return policy, what's to lose?

 

+1 .. I haven't heard the Yaqin (sorry) but I purchased my APPJ amp from Amazon for just this reason. 

[DancingSea]

The hesitant part has to do with warranty service.  If something broke after Amazon's protective 30 days, shipping a very heavy amp to China for service wouldn't be practical.

 

The Yaqin tube buffer arrives tomorrow, very excited to try it between my DAC and amp...

[zackthedog]

3 hours ago, DancingSea said:

The hesitant part has to do with warranty service.  If something broke after Amazon's protective 30 days, shipping a very heavy amp to China for service wouldn't be practical.

 

The Yaqin tube buffer arrives tomorrow, very excited to try it between my DAC and amp...

According to the reviews, it's less complicted than that.  I see a few folks had problems, but it seems to have mostly tubes involved.  I think you can take a chance that it will work fine.

[GUTB]

Wanbo Shop in AliExpress has some big specials starting. You can get Line Magnetic and Cayin amps there for up to 1/2 the price you get them in Europe or the US. If I wasn't totally drained right this moment I might just jump on that LM-518IA. Even if I had to get a voltage converter for it.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1070003

 

 

[DancingSea]

In the spirit of Yaqin exploration, today a Yaqin CD3 6N8P Tube Buffer arrived.  Am using the stock Chinese tubes while I wait for the Electro-Harmonix 6SN7 EH Vacuum Tubes to arrive.

 

Its only been an hour, but wow, what a step back in SQ so far.  Bass has shrunk, sound is very thin, soundstage much smaller.  SQ is *much* better without the device.  Reviews on Amazon are glowing from many an audiophile.  Can tube break in account for the difference in experience?  How long do tubes need?

 

Thus far the tube buffer has turned by much beloved YBA system into something I don't recognize.

 

 

[DancingSea]

Also, to break in tubes, is it enough to run the signal through the tubes and on to the amp, but not have the volume turned up?  Will that work?

[crenca]

30 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

In the spirit of Yaqin exploration, today a Yaqin CD3 6N8P Tube Buffer arrived.  Am using the stock Chinese tubes while I wait for the Electro-Harmonix 6SN7 EH Vacuum Tubes to arrive.

 

Its only been an hour, but wow, what a step back in SQ so far.  Bass has shrunk, sound is very thin, soundstage much smaller.  SQ is *much* better without the device.  Reviews on Amazon are glowing from many an audiophile.  Can tube break in account for the difference in experience?  How long do tubes need?

 

Thus far the tube buffer has turned by much beloved YBA system into something I don't recognize.

 

 

 

It could be (probably is) those stock tubes.  I would recommend some 1950 era GE GTA 6SN7 ...

 

see:  

 

[GUTB]

The basic Chinese tubes suck. I replaced mine with GEs (side rings / getters). I also have some Shuguang Natural Sound 6SN7 and 6SL7 tubes on the way (these are NOT interchangeable BTW, it's just that my amp uses both).

 

Also you have to give them 100-200 hours to burn in.

[zackthedog]

2 hours ago, DancingSea said:

Also, to break in tubes, is it enough to run the signal through the tubes and on to the amp, but not have the volume turned up?  Will that work?

Yes, that will work.

[4greatergood]

Greetings;

 

I have had this AMP going on 2 years. I upgraded the tubes to Tung Sol and this amp has been awesome, no issues, crisp clear driven sound. I enjoy my system very much.

 

 

[Jeff_N]

I have one too, fed by an Aurender N100C and Yggdrasil, driving Gallo Reference 3.1 speakers. I'm not much of an audiophile. I don't know anything about electrical engineering, I don't have golden ears, but I love the Yaqin.

[4greatergood]

I hear ya man. If you do not have experience with electronics, tubes and capacitors you most certainly want to stay away from working on these amps for that matter any amp,  they can hold lethal electrical charges days after being unplugged. I opened my amp up two days ago to inspect and clean. The round black cans would imply these amps have torodial power transformer, choke etc. These units have regular transformers but Yaqin claims the steel used is high grade and from Japan. Upon opening my unit up to clean and inspect I decided to recap the entire amp with Mundorf Capacitors (German made, highly desirable in audio equipment). Anyway I figure this is a good platform to begin with and over time with some tweaks it can be a great tube amp. I will keep ya up to date as I begin the upgrades with pictures and brief explanations as well.

[The Computer Audiophile]

22 hours ago, 4greatergood said:

Greetings;

 

I have had this AMP going on 2 years. I upgraded the tubes to Tung Sol and this amp has been awesome, no issues, crisp clear driven sound. I enjoy my system very much.

 

 

I bet that subwoofer takes care of setting your clock back for daylight savings 😁

[4greatergood]

LOLOL! Ooops..... my bad, the clock shook itself apart, now it is just a paperweight. I will add though the wire management has been taken care of and the system / rack looks much cleaner. Question, are any of you concerned about precision power and power management? I have a sign wave APC ups a pile power conditioner, I was just curious if anyone else took this issue seriously or maybe I am just being too serious?

[gmgraves]

On 11/8/2019 at 6:37 PM, 4greatergood said:

LOLOL! Ooops..... my bad, the clock shook itself apart, now it is just a paperweight. I will add though the wire management has been taken care of and the system / rack looks much cleaner. Question, are any of you concerned about precision power and power management? I have a sign wave APC ups a pile power conditioner, I was just curious if anyone else took this issue seriously or maybe I am just being too serious?

No, you’re not “just being too serious”. Clean mains is definitely audible, although the difference depends mostly on how dirty the raw mains is coming out of the wall in the first place. If you live in the country, your mains is probably pretty clean. Urban and suburban mains is less so. Older buildings in big cities are probably the worst. If You suspect that your mains is less than pristine, TRY various conditioners before you buy. Don’t be taken in by such mouse-milk as “audiophile grade” equipment fuses and mains cables between the wall and your equipment that are as big as a baby’s arm and cost as much as a new, high-end amplifier! These can do nothing to clean-up dirty AC power! If you try one of these and think that you hear an improvement, congratulations, you are the victim of confirmation and/or expectational bias. IOW it’s your imagination.