Today I get to try one of Mcchanson amp and it's a monster. Using Tung Sol current production KT150, 6EM7 as driver and GZ34 as rectifier tube. This amp output 12w in UL and 6.5w in triode mode. It's a stereo amp with no headphone output but Eric could have one put in, that what my friend said. The amp was loan to my friend for evaluation. He had wanted a SET amp base on KT77 for primarily headphone usage but secondarily as a speaker amp.
This amp can accept KT150, KT120, KT88, KT77, EL34 and 6L6GC by manually adjusting the bias for different tubes. This particular amp is bias for KT150. Eric made a speaker taps cable out to 1/4 inch jack for my friend.
The amp was brought over to my home for evaluation. I've a Elekit TU-8200 which uses the same complimentary array of power tubes and a pair of 12au7 as preamp tubes. I've been very impressed with Elekit amp and when the preamp / phono stage TU-8500 arrived, it raise the level of SQ even further. I run GEC KT66, Philips Miniwatt 6CA7 and Telefunken EL12 spez in it and it is such an astounding sounding amp.
So when Mcchanson KT150 amp arrived, I was very curious to know how it would fare against the Elekit combo. No headphone out means I have to use the speakers tab cable with my He1000se and LCD-3f.
Gingerly I connected the sacrificial LCD-3f first to the amp and started to listen to the first song, increasing the volume very slowly. A big smile broke out when I hear music and it's blossomed out, great bass and sounded very detailed. It's organic for sure and not mid centric like the 300b tubes. High frequencies, mid-range and bass are handled very well. I was very surprised that this speaker amp sounded very good with LCD-3f. Next I swap to the HE1000se and was equally astonished that it drove the HiFiMan like a maestro.
How did it differ from my Elekit combo? The KT150 amp is fuller, more meat to the bones and more bloom. Elekit combo is tighter, more precise and has better stereo imaging with Telefunken EL12 spez and Brimar 12au7 long plates tubes. Which do I prefer. Hard to say really. The audition was one hour short because we had to go to another friend's place. However this short session has left me pretty impressed with Mcchanson KT150 amp. I believe that using KT77 or EL34 or KT88 would have been better suited for headphones but there's a lot of potential for this amp. Perhaps if I had more time with it, I would have like it more.
Anyone looking for a competitor to the Elekit TU-8200R or the TU-8800 should definitely audition a KT77 configured headphone / speaker amp from Mcchanson. For one, it's quite cheap and sound great and the build though a bit on the traditional no frills look, does look smart in black. I wish I could have kept it for a week but let's hope my friend order the KT77 version and then I'll be able to try it for a longer time.
Final note: I was holding back on my praise of this amp. Didn't want to appear to fall head over heels on first listen of this KT150 amp. The truth is I was very impressed and I could tell you that I would want to own one and the listed price is just AUD$1900.
Some pictures and it sure look very pretty for the budget price.
Speaker taps cable to the xlr connection of the headphone jack. It a SE amp. The xlr out is just for convenience.
