China Amp clone - Too much offers - Which one ?

[tutancarmen]

Three month ago I purchased a China clone FM preamp that costed about 400 U.s. To me that preamp is an incredible Value for money . Now I'd like to buy a Power amp maybe a Dartzeel 108 or a Fm 711 . In that case there too much Type of the same Amp From 400 to 4000 . There are too much dealer and I don't know Who I can turn to . Did anyone had any experience with thaose power amp ? Should I go for the much expensive ?

[Puffin]

You may find that some amps for sale on popular auction sites say "based on" a particular design or makers product, for example "based on Musical Fidelity A1 circuit". Without studying the circuit in detail with the one for sale you will not know if this is true or not. It may also be the case that the quality or the values of the components used might be different which could mean that the cheaper amp may not sound the same as the one around which it it based. It might sound good enough for the lower cost paid......then again it might not.

[tutancarmen]

THanks for your reply . As I 've said I 'm only looking for a High value for money P.amp. As I said If the China Marker offers too much type of Dartzeel or Fm 711 it is hard to take your choice . My 400 Us Fm has an oustanding value for money . I'm not sure that a Dartzeel for about 700 us could be as good as my china Fm .

[Macca]

If you want a high value for money power amp get a used NAD C320BEE. It has much better measured performance than the real Dartzeel.

These clone amps are a crapshoot and I doubt you will find any one individual with experience of many of the various iterations available. Added to which there are concerns over the component quality and possibly the safety aspect too.

You can take a shot in the dark and hope it turns out well or play more conservatively and go for a known brand and model where you know from the start exactly what you are getting. Although I agree the second option is not as much fun.

[Filterlab]

If you do plump for a Chinese clone amp, get it properly checked over by a competent Hi-Fi engineer before using it. There are a few horror stories of live cases and lack of earthing out there - of course it doesn't apply to all of them, but there's a reason for electrical safety marks, which the Chinese don't (generally) adhere to.

You may just strike it lucky of course!

[Barry]

+1

The safety aspects of some 'Chi-Fi' can be lamentable. I've seen items which used a mains lead having a moulded 13A plug, which certainly did not conform to BS1363 - it didn't have a user changable fuse!

Also beware of some of the so-called clones of, say, Quad 405 circuit boards. They may look good, but the quality of some of the components populating them are poor - and even worse there are, with some, mistakes in the PCB layout.

As always; caveat emptor.

[tutancarmen]

If you do plump for a Chinese clone amp, get it properly checked over by a competent Hi-Fi engineer before using it. There are a few horror stories of live cases and lack of earthing out there - of course it doesn't apply to all of them, but there's a reason for electrical safety marks, which the Chinese don't (generally) adhere to.

You may just strike it lucky of course!

Thanks for your post , I'm sorry to say that My friend got TWO Mark levinson 23.5 . I'm not joking they Caught fire in front of me . Really like a dragon . Then after one year Marlk Levinson serviced them but I Know that my friend spent a lot of money . Many years ago I got an AUDIO INNOVATION 500 but play like in heaven only for ten days .

[antonio]

I've got this on a saved list, good review and also read about someone's experiences with the more powerful Dartzeel model which he was very happy with, so he purchased one of these to use as a spare and again gave it good reports: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305...68b12e0eozvNza I do remember him saying, you may need to change some capacitors to get the best out of them , but I think that could be a general rule for all Chinese clones.

I'd also looked at this one as well: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3305...68b12e0eozvNza