Our Xmas was cancelled like everyone else's so feeling a little down I made an impulse buy on ebay to cheer myself up. I purchased a Bel Canto SETI40 amplifier. Its a single ended amplifier with zero feedback and just one capacitor in the signal path. I noticed it had very good reviews but at the time did not realize it was 21 years old.

The amp arrived just before Brexit but unfortunately it was not well packed. One of the 845 tubes was broken and the other made worrying noises when I tapped it. The package came with a spare set of cheap Chinese tubes but only one of these worked. I also read online that one of the output transformer had been replaced.

Not to worry I ordered a set of Psvane Acme 845 from China, but after 4 weeks I heard nothing. After a few email exchanges I was beginning to doubt they ever would. A couple of weeks later I then heard about the terrible quality issues at Psvane and the high percentage of DOA and the dreaded red plate issue. At this point I decided to cancel the this order and order some Linlai tubes from another dealer. The Psvane supplier claimed they had sent the tubes, to my surprise the Acme 845s arrived a week later and another week on a set of Linlai E-845!

As you might imagine I was some what concerned when it came to switch on but to my delight not only did the tubes work they did not suffer from the dreaded 'red plate' issue. I thought I already had some very good amplifiers but this amp with the Acme tubes sounds sublime. The bass is rich and absolutely immense which for a jazz and a reggae fan like myself is ideal.