[333jeffery]

I'm not sure if these qualify as high-end, but this looks like the best place to post. So, are there any really good quality tube amps from China? I'm looking to replace an Adcom 555 solid-state amp with a tube unit, and I've come across a lot of amps from Chinese manufacturers that look decent, and have really tempting price-tags. Stuff like Yaqin and Separo. Any recommendations?
Also, this will be used to drive some rather large Legacy Audio speakers, and I was wondering how much wattage would be enough to power them. I don't want something under-powered.

 

[Elysian]

Check out Audio Space gear.  I recently purchased a Reference 2 preamp and am very happy with its performance and quality.  Peter Lau (the founder and lead designer of Audio Space) won a lifetime achievement award for tube amp design in Japan, and is the first Chinese to ever win that award in Japan.  Peter Lau does arguably the best 300B implementations on the market.  The Reference 1 monoblocks and Reference 2 preamp both won product of the year awards in Japan.
http://www.avguide.com/review/audio-space-reference-2-linestage-preamplifier
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/audiospace_reference_two.htm
 
Depending on what your budget is, if you're looking for a power amp, check out the Reference 1 and Reference 3.  If you want an integrated amp, Reference 3.1.  If your budget isn't quite that high ($4-20k), they have lower-end models like the Nova.  You can see a full product listing at www.gini.com
Reference 3.1: http://www.avguide.com/review/tas-194-audio-space-reference-31-300b-integrated-amplifier
 
If you're fine with an unbalanced preamp, the Reference 2S is, according to Peter, 90% as good as the Reference 2 in unbalanced mode, at less than half the price:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/audiospace5/1.html
 
If you want to talk to a good US dealer for Audio Space gear, call up Walter at Underwood Hifi.  He'll set you right.

 

[333jeffery]

The Audio Space stuff is nice, but out of my price range. I bought a Paxthon kt88 amp and am waiting for it to get here. It has a local dealer to back it up, which a lot of these amps on ebay do not have. I'm going to replace all the Chinese tubes on it with Tung-Sol and Genalex reissues when I set it up.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I'm not sure if these qualify as high-end, but this looks like the best place to post. So, are there any really good quality tube amps from China? I'm looking to replace an Adcom 555 solid-state amp with a tube unit, and I've come across a lot of amps from Chinese manufacturers that look decent, and have really tempting price-tags. Stuff like Yaqin and Separo. Any recommendations?
Also, this will be used to drive some rather large Legacy Audio speakers, and I was wondering how much wattage would be enough to power them. I don't want something under-powered.

Try the AVSforum website, a lot more home audio types there.
Watts can be missleading, amps is more important to focus on.
Amps times Voltage equals Watts.
So you can have low amps, but add extra unneeded voltage to kick up the watts number.
 
Only buy stuff From China if you do not care too much about warranty
Think of the expense for shipping stuff back to China and the long wait.
You willing to fly to China to resolve any warranty problems?
 
 
 

 

[wuwhere]

Try Audio Asylum.

 

[Elysian]

Quote:

Only buy stuff From China if you do not care too much about warranty
Think of the expense for shipping stuff back to China and the long wait.
You willing to fly to China to resolve any warranty problems?

That applies for the cheap stuff, but the reputable Chinese dealers have US distributors who handle repair domestically, and have been in business for many years.
 
It is a good point, though, to search around and see what people say about the repair policy and experiences for the respective manufacturer.

 

[333jeffery]

I've been listening to the Paxthon for the last several days, and it sounds quite good for a bargain-priced tube amp. Only change I'm going to make on it is to replace the Tung-Sol 6sn7 tubes with some Shuguang Treasures cv181-z tubes. I was surprised at how good vocals and guitar sound on this amp, much better than my old Adcom.

 

[clearear]

2s?

 

[clearear]

Hi,  what did the audio space preamp run you?