[Thenewguy007]

Can someone provide a tl;dr? I have no idea what this thread is about and what's with all the Russian text? I thought it is about poor quality of a Chinese product?

He bought a Opera Consonance Cyber 845 mono tube amp & it was complete junk.
Badly packaged, badly made & cheap parts.

That brand sells itself as a higher end brand in China, He also owned a much cheaper Chinese made Yarland 845 amplifier, which was much better made in every way.

Moral of the story is because a brand is high end, doesn't mean it's a quality product.

 

[Dave 868]

The sound of Chinese Opera amplifiers after a big upgrade -

 

[]eep]

Can someone provide a tl;dr? I have no idea what this thread is about and what's with all the Russian text? I thought it is about poor quality of a Chinese product?

this thread is about someone who bought something shiny thinking it was too good to be true and went ahead and bought it without due diligence. Now instead of researching before buying he is trashing whole nations, generalizing and showing off how he 'fixed' a not that great tubeamp with lots of expensive parts. In short he is blaming everyone for his own mistake.

I have listened to a Yarland 300B that wasn't great. I was one of the first to buy a Yarland FV34C EL34 single ended and it had cheap (fake even ?) parts too. I did a little research and fixed it and it blew my very expensive Audio Note Oto SE out of the water. So YMMV even within a brand.
I personally know the (former) distributor of Yarland in my part of Europe who did some upgrades on the Yarland range that the factory adopted. I can tell you that the brand suffered from bad characterisations like the above and my friend has thrown in the towel.

So I think this thread is more damaging than helping. I understand the TS is angry. But I think it says enough about his own character.

 

[Dave 868]

In terms of upgrades , Chinese amplifiers are very productive, but expensive , as you often have to replace most of the parts and almost all the wiring.
There was almost no case that the Chinese audio was struck by something, except, perhaps, one case, with regard to the Yarland company, which makes its tube amplifiers with a colossal tuning potential . For example , the flagship Yarland-lamp beauty on 845 lamps (Ariand-845 ) has a de facto dual mono,separate power supply with rectifier for the driver and the driver. parts and after completion begins (in a comparative test) to compete fiercely with such even an authority as Ongaku, which is about the same output power (about 25 watts per channel). Replaying this Ongaku in terms of musicality and analogous timbres. Ongaku excels in detail and large scale ( due to the use of a cathode repeater in the driver stage) and all this on a system where all the components of the highest level of hi-end are at least $ 50,000 per component-preamp, speaker . To say that the owner of the Ongaku was shocked - is to say nothing at all ...

 

[Thenewguy007]

this thread is about someone who bought something shiny thinking it was too good to be true and went ahead and bought it without due diligence. Now instead of researching before buying he is trashing whole nations, generalizing and showing off how he 'fixed' a not that great tubeamp with lots of expensive parts. In short he is blaming everyone for his own mistake.

What research? Nothing is known of Opera Consonance brand online other than their boutique branding & high end prices. This is the first thread I seen talking about them in any way other than advertising.

What they are selling is a outright scam!

 

[Dave 868]

What research? Nothing is known of Opera Consonance brand online other than their boutique branding & high end prices. This is the first thread I seen talking about them in any way other than advertising.

What they are selling is a outright scam!

I completely agree with you - all their advertising statements ( Frequency response: (-3dB points at 15 watt) 5Hz - 47kHz )- complete lies and deception . http://www.opera-consonance.com/products/amplifier/Cyber845S.htm
P.S. I wrote a complaint to the manufacturer with the indication of false advertising brochures - they did not even respond and did not change the data on their official website - they just do not care about the customers ....

 

[]eep]

What research? Nothing is known of Opera Consonance brand online other than their boutique branding & high end prices. This is the first thread I seen talking about them in any way other than advertising.

What they are selling is a outright scam!

maybe that says more about your efforts than the brand. Especially when you know so little it is very unfair to make such sweeping statements. How can anyone proclaim all Chinese manufacturing is bad when you have close to none experience?


You do know Consonance work with Well Tempered to produce their tables. Just an example.

I am listening to a lot of Chinese stuff and the only thing that isnt is my Clearaudio TT and Genesis speakers (partly, because i use my new monitors that also contain Chinese/Taiwanese drivers and crossover that outperforms it).

Also, specs do not mean a lot. Useful for checking electric behavior, not very much for sound quality.

 

[Dawgfish]

I don't have any experience with Opera Consonance amps but I did have an Opera Consonace CD 120 Balanced CD player and it was incredibly well built and to this day the best pure Redbook CD player I have heard. The remote alone was machined out of solid aluminum. Everything about it was over-built.

Not discounting the troubles and experience some have had with Opera Consance, but my experience was overwhelmingly positive. I very much wish I still had this unit.

I let a friend use it as I replaced it with a NAD M55 multi-format player when I got into DVD-A and SACD. Unfortunately my friend died when I was away on an extended field event and I didn't find out till a couple of months after he passed. He had the Opera CD player, a very expensive Anthem tube-hybrid two-channel speaker amplifier, a Denon DVD-2900 multi format player, Harmon Kardon T60 turntable with very nice Signet cart, Jolida JD-9 phono preamp, Polk Monitor 7 speakers, and multiple pairs of rca interconnects and power cables that he was all lending from me. He lived alone and I was not able to recover the equipment. I was saddened first and foremost that I lost my friend of course but I also lost a lot of good equipment and the Opera CD player is probably most missed out of that lot of equipment. RIP Scott! You are very much missed!

 

[Dawgfish]

Sorry double post.

 

[]eep]

I don't have any experience with Opera Consonance amps but I did have an Opera Consonace CD 120 Balanced CD player and it was incredibly well built and to this day the best pure Redbook CD player I have heard. The remote alone was machined out of solid aluminum. Everything about it was over-built.

Not discounting the troubles and experience some have had with Opera Consance, but my experience was overwhelmingly positive. I very much wish I still had this unit.

I let a friend use it as I replaced it with a NAD M55 multi-format player when I got into DVD-A and SACD. Unfortunately my friend died when I was away on an extended field event and I didn't find out till a couple of months after he passed. He had the Opera CD player, a very expensive Anthem tube-hybrid two-channel speaker amplifier, a Denon DVD-2900 multi format player, Harmon Kardon T60 turntable with very nice Signet cart, Jolida JD-9 phono preamp, Polk Monitor 7 speakers, and multiple pairs of rca interconnects and power cables that he was all lending from me. He lived alone and I was not able to recover the equipment. I was saddened first and foremost that I lost my friend of course but I also lost a lot of good equipment and the Opera CD player is probably most missed out of that lot of equipment. RIP Scott! You are very much missed!

I don't know what to say. That is so sad but aggrievating at the same time; they just gave away your stuff. Understandable but not fair.

I own the Jolida jd9 too, good as is, incredible modified. The CD120 Linear was an early precurser to the resurgence of R2R dacs (thanks to 47-Labs). I almost bought it but went another way. Now just bought the Chinese Denafrips Ares II dac which is incredible any way you look at it. Now the Reisong tubamps are getting high praises on YouTube. This China bashing is getting very old.

 

[Dawgfish]

I don't know what to say. That is so sad but aggrievating at the same time; they just gave away your stuff. Understandable but not fair.

I own the Jolida jd9 too, good as is, incredible modified. The CD120 Linear was an early precurser to the resurgence of R2R dacs (thanks to 47-Labs). I almost bought it but went another way. Now just bought the Chinese Denafrips Ares II dac which is incredible any way you look at it. Now the Reisong tubamps are getting high praises on YouTube. This China bashing is getting very old.

Thanks! Yeah it was a frustrating experience to say the least. At the end of the day I miss my friend first and foremost. He was a good dude. His wife died of breast cancer about 1.5 years before and I think he grieved himself to death with drugs and alcohol. Really sad situation.

Back to the Chi-fi. I also have a fully modded JD-9 as my go to phono pre and it's incredible. I've tried other phono preamps but to date nothing has topped the JD-9. I also have a Primaluna Prologue 4 that is made in China and it's a stellar performer. I also have other Chinese gear made by Cayin and Topping that perform extremely well. There is quite a bit of really good Chinese gear out there. One cannot really judge all of a countries gear based on one experience. There's good stuff and bad stuff being made everywhere.

 

[dolgen]

Thanks! Yeah it was a frustrating experience to say the least. At the end of the day I miss my friend first and foremost. He was a good dude. His wife died of breast cancer about 1.5 years before and I think he grieved himself to death with drugs and alcohol. Really sad situation.

Back to the Chi-fi. I also have a fully modded JD-9 as my go to phono pre and it's incredible. I've tried other phono preamps but to date nothing has topped the JD-9. I also have a Primaluna Prologue 4 that is made in China and it's a stellar performer. I also have other Chinese gear made by Cayin and Topping that perform extremely well. There is quite a bit of really good Chinese gear out there. One cannot really judge all of a countries gear based on one experience. There's good stuff and bad stuff being made everywhere

I don't know what to say. That is so sad but aggrievating at the same time; they just gave away your stuff. Understandable but not fair.

I own the Jolida jd9 too, good as is, incredible modified. The CD120 Linear was an early precurser to the resurgence of R2R dacs (thanks to 47-Labs). I almost bought it but went another way. Now just bought the Chinese Denafrips Ares II dac which is incredible any way you look at it. Now the Reisong tubamps are getting high praises on YouTube. This China bashing is getting very old.

Are you saying that the CD120 Linear employs an R2R DAC?

 

[]eep]

Indeed. Iirc the Opera cd160 linear had a vintage r2r chip. Just look it up.

So I did (its been >12y since I was interested in this model), and indeed, it's a lowly dual Philips TDA1543 without digital filters and minimalistic passive output stage. Although compared to my own 4x1543 I should say I mention minimalistic very loosely. Still quite a few components in there, and not the best at that (whenever I see Wima MKS I can't rate it above 'adequate').

It was one of the first to jump on the (now highly rated) R2R bandwagon. So whatever your opinion, you have to give them credit for that. Opera has a good eye for audio (call it trends if you want to be cynical).