Posted by manualblock [ 24.191.167.32 ] on August 25, 2004 at 08:44:19:
In Reply to: Chinese audio posted by colinhester on August 25, 2004 at 07:36:13:
Colin; have you ever peeked inside and noticed if any of the passive parts are recognisable brands? Just curious whether caps and resistors are sourced through common producers. There is a case to be made that if the amp sounds good then the parts should be decent quality. Because if they are not then what does that say about the use of boutique parts in amplifiers and such if you can build a good sounding amp with poor quality parts.
That leaves the transformers; I could assume they might fail at some point if they are not constructed properly, but many of the Chinese brands have been around for some time and have a good track record. And again if they work and sound good they must by definition be decently made.
However Chinese tubes have a spotty history of reliability, but those are the most difficult parts to construct.
A few thoughts, J.R.(I have had some of the newer western tubes fail out of the box so who knows?)