Richard's hi-fi ranting 'Room 101'

In reply to Richard's earlier question,I bought a valve amp direct from China.I think it's an excellent piece of kit,and many who heard it at the recent Owstfest agreed.It's a Mr Liang 845,and cost me in total 450 quid(including being hit for duty).Now where else can you get a very good 845 SE amp for 450 quid?
Ok,this particular amp is a bit different from the usual Chinese fare,in that the bloke who makes them is a successful businessman over there(not in the hifi sphere),who just happened to have been a hifi nut for many years,and decided to start his own small workshop making his own amps.He has I think about six staff there,and even winds his own transformers in-house,so they are not the usual cheaply made mass produced tx's commonly found in amps of this type.The weight alone tells you something about the quality of the iron-45kg.I've had the thing to bits,and believe me there is nothing cheap about the construction,and the quality of the pcb's is as good as any I've ever seen,they really are superb.I can't see any boutique components,but I suspect they are just unbranded items from the same factories.Good standard quality stuff in any case as this thing sounds great! It's also run quite happily on UK mains for almost a year now. As Nick said at the recent Owstfest,"It's not just a cheap amp that sounds good,it's a good amp period.The cheap price is just a bonus"
I agree about the relatively poor Chinese valves,although sounding very good straight out of the box,useful improvements were made by substituting NOS variants on the front end.The chinese 845's are pretty good though,and I'm not paying the silly prices for NOS ones!(a good pair would be more than twice the cost of the amp!) It comes with the basic mica-topped types,but I'm awaiting some of the 845b's which I've heard, and are much better than the basic ones.I've also ordered some decent coupling caps and cathode resistors,which I'm hoping will raise the performance even further.

Regards,Ali

To be fair the Chinese 845's seem quite robust. I have some. I'm not convinced by their EL34's 6550's KT88's or 2A3's though particularly not in Class A use. The Russian ones still seem much stronger.

But this is off topic.


I'm waiting for Richard to explain how people 'should' audition & buy large loudspeakers.

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Originally Posted by Richard

BUT community is changing via the web, look how much change in the last couple of years. Then this conversation would not have been possible, so what is likely possible in a couple of years. This is like going back to the very old days where advice was asked of mates in the pub or conversations with neighbours and friends. Community died in the 70's and is now coming back via the web, it will encompass all things, and the only losers will be the slurpers who rely on information staying secret and only for insiders - the changes are not all here but they are coming.

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There are two fatal flaws in this argument:

1. Who says that your "knowledgable" mate actually knows what he's talking about...
2. and when you do find out he was talking bollocks will he be the one that will refund the money on the lemon you bought? Yeah, right.

:lol:

Isn't it self evident from many of the threads that free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it?; and also that one persons idea of "good sound" is definitely not another's. My neighbours bought a new Hi-Fi last Christmas. They spent the extra £30 and got the good one.............for £130. :doh:

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Originally Posted by Ali Tait

In reply to Richard's earlier question,I bought a valve amp direct from China.I think it's an excellent piece of kit,and many who heard it at the recent Owstfest agreed.It's a Mr Liang 845,and cost me in total 450 quid(including being hit for duty).Now where else can you get a very good 845 SE amp for 450 quid?
Ok,this particular amp is a bit different from the usual Chinese fare,in that the bloke who makes them is a successful businessman over there(not in the hifi sphere),who just happened to have been a hifi nut for many years,and decided to start his own small workshop making his own amps.He has I think about six staff there,and even winds his own transformers in-house,so they are not the usual cheaply made mass produced tx's commonly found in amps of this type.The weight alone tells you something about the quality of the iron-45kg.I've had the thing to bits,and believe me there is nothing cheap about the construction,and the quality of the pcb's is as good as any I've ever seen,they really are superb.I can't see any boutique components,but I suspect they are just unbranded items from the same factories.Good standard quality stuff in any case as this thing sounds great! It's also run quite happily on UK mains for almost a year now. As Nick said at the recent Owstfest,"It's not just a cheap amp that sounds good,it's a good amp period.The cheap price is just a bonus"
I agree about the relatively poor Chinese valves,although sounding very good straight out of the box,useful improvements were made by substituting NOS variants on the front end.The chinese 845's are pretty good though,and I'm not paying the silly prices for NOS ones!(a good pair would be more than twice the cost of the amp!) It comes with the basic mica-topped types,but I'm awaiting some of the 845b's which I've heard, and are much better than the basic ones.I've also ordered some decent coupling caps and cathode resistors,which I'm hoping will raise the performance even further.

Regards,Ali

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Good stuff!

Did you need a retailer - no.

Did you need a magazine or reveiwer - no.

Did you need any marketing men - no.

So the result is you got a bargain 'cos none of them took your money for no purpose - simple no brainer.

Not everyone wants to skin their cat the same way, Richard :smoking:

Marco.

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Not everyone wants to skin their cat the same way, Richard

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Quite. This forum embraces the differing methods of relieving cats of their skins. There is no One True Way, especially not one steeped in such bitter and twistedness.

Well to be honest,it was a bit of a risk as I've heard some dire Chinese amps.The thing that decided me on this amp was the weight,to me it meant there was a decent amount of iron in there.I won the auction itself for 155 quid though,so to my way of thinking,if I didn't like the amp,I had a nice chassis to build something decent in.I don't think you could buy a decent chassis in stainless steel with a 10mm ali front plate for anywhere near that price here.That it sounded as good as it does was a happy suprise.The only other amp I have heard that gives you as much bang for the buck is the WAD(now WD) KEL84,unless of course you are happy scratch-building your own.

Ali, you were a lucky, lucky man who wasn't taking any financial risk. This is not really what Richard advocates. He expects us to save 40% on a few grand and risk buying a dog.

And the Yaqin, too, Ali baby. You seemed mildly impressed that evening at Owston ;)

And when you visit chez-moi, there's plenty more to come...

Marco.

P.S You have a PM :smoking:

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Originally Posted by Richard

Good stuff!

Did you need a retailer - no.

Did you need a magazine or reveiwer - no.

Did you need any marketing men - no.

So the result is you got a bargain 'cos none of them took your money for no purpose - simple no brainer.

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Did he take a chance that he might end up with a £450 paperweight with no recourse ? - Yes

Of course that's a personal gamble which we can all choose to do or not.