Chinese Audio Equipment

[Ninanina]

tis a transformer Bev to add or subtract voltage from the mains depending how you wire it. in this case to take say 20volts or so from uk mains to give 220volts for the amp.

Thanks for being kind Grant... I get it now...

When you say 'bucking' does that mean you had a problem with it? Was it the same Yaqin that I had ?

[struth]

Thanks for being kind Grant... I get it now...

When you say 'bucking' does that mean you had a problem with it? Was it the same Yaqin that I had ?

no bother. no, its just the name they are given. (Think its re the word meaning to resist.. ie to buck a trend) Yes it was same amp. worked very well... Ive also got a variac for use with pretty much anything as it can do most voltages. Handy box of tricks I made up a while ago

[Firebottle]

It's terminology used with power supply design Bev, Buck and Boost.

Buck is to generally lower the voltage and boost is, you guessed it, to generally increase the voltage.

[jandl100]

I have no problems with the sound quality for the price, once the cables are swapped round. Just wonder if people bother to check the stereo output? I was just lucky that one of my test recordings (David Bowie - Space Oddity) has very distinctive left/right channels which I noticed right away.

I'm a happy user of Chinese hifi.

Xiang Sheng DAC and Little Bear P8 valve pre and Nobsound NS-G02 amp - all utterly superb sounding and the vfm is so far off the chart it's currently approaching the edge of the galaxy.

Good Lord - I hadn't actually realised till I typed that, that ALL the electronics in my fabulous sounding system are currently Chinese.

Re: reversed L/R inputs - I have noticed that Chinese gear can go against the usual convention of having the Left phono socket above the Right, instead having Right above Left.
Is that what you mean?
I can usually cope.
It's basically arbitrary anyway.

[Kit1cat]

Hi Jerry, nothing to do with the placement of the sockets, more of a labeling problem, the red phono connector labeled right is actually outputting the sound ment for the left channel and vice versa. Easy checked by playing a speaker check track.

[Reffc]

I've occasionally bought Chinese made gear. From official sources, they have all been localised for UK voltage and I've not had any problems (the Consonance Droplet for example). I did read on another forum a few years back where several people who jumped on the bandwagon and bought a certain well known valve headphone amp, in their case, all DID catch fire, one within the first month of ownership, and two apparently within 2 years. All were rated at 220v.

The mains transformers were running saturated, and the insulation on the windings broke down causing a short. In every case, the protection (or lack of) didn't prevent smoke and flames, so be warned.

I checked the power rating of my Chinese DAC (sourced from Germany) and it is clearly labelled 220-240v. Now it is highly likely that this is actually 230V because there is no way of switching between 220 or 240 for the input (hence it is misleading) and it would be interesting to take it apart and examine the power supply for tell tale labelling. In this case, I may get away for running it for a fair few years without trouble but I don't expect it to stay reliable if it is running saturated, and it would never be left on whilst we were out.

Back to Blighty kit, and I also had exactly the same thing happen as Adam (Beobloke) with a phonostage. I hadn't had it long and one of the rectifier diodes blew for some reason after several hours of being first plugged in, taking out some of the transformer windings which resulted in smoke and a very pungent smelling living room for a few days. It is the only piece of kit to ever fail like that on me in over 30 years.

The more worrying aspect with non-localised Chinese kit bought on Ebay and not through a recognised importer/distributor, is that you can never be sure that it in fact complies with CE requirements especially for earthing. Many do not. A friend bought a valve amp a while back and invited me over to hear it. It was an EL84 PP design. When I arrived, the enthusiasm had vanished from his tone and he showed me the amp, which by then was un-plugged and tipped up with the base plate removed. It wasn't earthed. Had it developed a fault on the HT side, it potentially could have killed him or his son. Be warned, check everything that doesn't come from an official source or Caveat Emptor most certainly applies.

[agk]

Caution is definitely a good thing when buying this gear but it seems from my research before buying that YaQin at least have taken steps to sort voltage and earthing.

I found a write-up that charted the development of their EL34 based amps through various models and true enough originally they were an accident waiting to happen.

I still couldn't bring myself to risk it but then found one being sold by a dude in the same town as myself.

He had owned and used it for eighteen months after sourcing it from Canada through a supplier who gets them in and checks them out for safety and function.

Probably the best buy I've made.

[struth]

I'm a happy user of Chinese hifi.

Xiang Sheng DAC and Little Bear P8 valve pre and Nobsound NS-G02 amp - all utterly superb sounding and the vfm is so far off the chart it's currently approaching the edge of the galaxy.

Good Lord - I hadn't actually realised till I typed that, that ALL the electronics in my fabulous sounding system are currently Chinese.

Re: reversed L/R inputs - I have noticed that Chinese gear can go against the usual convention of having the Left phono socket above the Right, instead having Right above Left.
Is that what you mean?
I can usually cope.
It's basically arbitrary anyway.

how you getting on with the new nob Jerry? is that got a vc on it or does it need a pre

[jandl100]

how you getting on with the new nob Jerry? is that got a vc on it or does it need a pre

I love my Nob. I play with it all the time.

yes, it;s got a volume control, but I suspect it may be a passive as it sounds better with an active pre in front.

[User211]

Some say you need to be a Nobhead to buy one...

Only joking Jerry.