just wondered if they sound alright ,just seen one on ebay for a hundred quid inc postage and was sorely tempted,then thought they must be rubbish at that price surely?

Not tried a valve amp but my experience of Chinese electrical goods generally is that they are surprisingly OK when new, often based on (or copied from) old but recent designs. However, quality control is such that they normally deterioirate rather quickly.

I have had a Consonance 99M, based on 12AX7, 6SN7 and 6L6 tubes for about three years. It reinvigorated my interest in Audio and though I have moved on from it, it remains one of the best $400 I have ever spent. It remains my backup amp.

Norman

i use vincent monoblock valve / solid state hybrids. these are rebadged sheng-ya amps (iirc). i've had them for over a year now and they just keep on truckin' producing pleasant sounds.

Is this the one which is on a boat from China with delivery in November for £79.95 plus p&p?

Rod

I do recall someone on the forum (Robert perhaps) dabbling with Chinese Valves, and I recall the valves burning out or similar as they were not correctly biased\set up or whatever you have to do to valves to stop them melting and burning your house down.......

So get it set up by a grown up when you receive it......

S

I bought a Yaqin MC-10 in March last year to try out and as a back-up whilst waiting for my 260z. I was curious to try a valve amp after reading Markus Sae's report of an experiment to assess perceptions of valve/solid state sound in a thread here.

Mine sounds pretty good, is very un-fatiguing to listen to and does particularly well on acoustic music and simpler tracks, all though is by no means embarrassed by heavy rock. It hasn't disintegrated, set the house on fire or been anything less than reliable.

It came with a circuit diagram and would be within the ability of any guitar amp tech to repair, so no worries about warranty/etc.

yes rodrat thats the one,still mulling it over as these comments seem not unfavourable.

Don't know if the MiniMax qualifies, but I bought the pre-power a year past and have never once regretted it. A little tube rolling and I've never had better sound. Sure, volume limited (or at least it was until I added a solid state amp to drive the bass) but so, so fine, and a steal at the price,...

I have a Shengya too but a hybrid ss power with tubes for the pre. Good bass and smoother sounding than my Nait 3. Jim.

Yes check out:

www.cattylink.com

Very reliable and are willing to negotiate on any price or item.

I wouldnt touch any of those cheap and nasty amps on ebay. They arent even worth the postage.

I bought some excellent Ming Da equipment...an MC 67HA preamp (actually pretty good!) and 2 805A monoblocks (40W class A) for £1100 delivered....within 3 days from China via DHL.

To say i was impressed was an understatement.

I ran a Ming-da M34a for a couple of years. Revalved it after 12 months with some good valves and loved it. If you buy really cheap you'll get what you pay for. You could however buy one like mine for £350ish. There's one here on Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Meixing-MC34-A-MC-34A-EL34-Valve-Tube-Integrated-Amp_W0QQitemZ220026962145QQihZ012QQcategoryZ3280QQ ssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I might be tempted to sell mine if an offer came in..... It's not new but it's got some rather nice valves in, some Mullards and some Brimars. I bought a Manley Stingray instead.
It was a great amp, and I've heard nothing to touch the right side of £800. It has it's faults, it's an EL34, so it's not a bass monkey, but it does mid to die for. It's ability in that area takes a lot of pounds to replicate if you want the other extremes as well.
I wouldn't however touch a really cheap one. I'd go for one that's been fettled. I had mine sorted at a rather nice place near Leeds, who revalved it, checked the bias, and confirmed that it wasn't set up properly on arrival.

those mingda MC800 d monos look nice - would they be any good?

Resurrecting an old thread here, has anyone else tried the Meixing products yet? I am looking at going for the MC67HA and MC805A combination myself and would value anyone elses experience with any of the Meixing products.

Chris

I have a ming da pre amp mc7r.......I found the output too
much for a rotel power and sent it to icon audio...for mod.Due to circumstances I dont use it much at present.I do wonder if integrated is a better approach with valve amps otherwise theres a greater risk of getting hum probs.which I had with the preamp.I have a cayin mt12 integrated which has been great for the price.Are'nt some of these things designed here and made in china?

i had the use of my brother's Ming da MC 34 B for a while, the fun here was in experimenting with swapping the valves - 6L6GC, KT66 etc. It had a very bright sound imho, which was not tempered by the use of different sets of output valves. My wife had the last word in the end though - it simply wasn't realistic enough soundwise - appealing but inaccurate. I'd certainly consider buying other ming-da products though.

john

You get what you pay for even if it's coming from China. I'm tempted to say, "especially if it's coming from China."

Plus, I'm pretty certain a lot of the Chinese amplifiers are simply blatant copies of good commercial designs.

It's your decision based on the economics and your own ideology (i.e., supporting our home industries versus trying to save a buck).

The old addage "there's no free lunch" is never circumvented.

The old addage "there's no free lunch" is never circumvented.

Agreed. Most of the cheaper Chinese valve's I've heard have completely underwhelmed me. Having said that, I have heard a pair of the far more expensive Consonance mono-blocks, and they sounded ace. the probably was that their cost was going on for the price of s/h Border Patrol units.

I recon they may be my cyber800's ......flawless, built like a tank and sound ...well you'd need to hear a set.

these did not come with chinese valves ...but philips and electroharmonix....had one power valve let go and that was replaced by the dealer after 6m..

contrasts strongly with the dynavox vr70e frightfully shorted lived valves [two weeks] but with good valves got surprisingly close the 800's at 1/15 th of the cost

Ming da.............

Wasn't he the guy in Flash Gordon? :D

You get what you pay for even if it's coming from China. I'm tempted to say, "especially if it's coming from China."

Plus, I'm pretty certain a lot of the Chinese amplifiers are simply blatant copies of good commercial designs.

It's your decision based on the economics and your own ideology (i.e., supporting our home industries versus trying to save a buck).

The old addage "there's no free lunch" is never circumvented.

Spot On!

I have a Ming-Da 34A, it was ok in stock form but I have spent a few quid on upgraded caps, valves and power supply and it is now very good IMHO.

You get what you pay for even if it's coming from China. I'm tempted to say, "especially if it's coming from China."

Plus, I'm pretty certain a lot of the Chinese amplifiers are simply blatant copies of good commercial designs.

It's your decision based on the economics and your own ideology (i.e., supporting our home industries versus trying to save a buck).

The old addage "there's no free lunch" is never circumvented.

Have you seen how much lunch you can get in Shanghai for your pound sterling? Huge lunches to be had for the equivalent of about $1.25 (i.e., damn cheap). 'Course, you have to like Chinese food...

Thanks for the input guys. No disrespect intended, but what I am interested in is getting observation from people who have owned Mei Xing Ming Da products or listened to music through them. There is a lot of web opinion about stuff like this, but this conjecture is of little use to help make an informed decision.

I can see how this can happen. Not many people have the means to drop a large sum on a sight unheard / unseen purchase with marginal support, so these things don't often get purchased outside of their domestic market.

Also there is a lot of "preconception" about Chinese product. Much current well respected equipment is made in China, so I am not overly worried about domestic jobs etc, no one is making anything remotely similar here anyway. It is not a case of "our" stuff being made in China being better either, much of the mark up difference being to cover the vendors margin here. Running a shop is seriously expensive, so I do not begrudge one penny of what I would pay here. Also, do not underestimate the Chinese. I am sure that some of the products are made to a price (so is everything else any of us buy), but they have a passion for doing things well when it comes to stuff that is special or non mass market. Combine this with intelligence and ingenuity and the Chinese should make a decent product. I have bought car modifying parts from China and Tiwan that have performed flawlessly.

I have always had a hankering after a decent power SET setup and this is the only way I am going to afford one. So the risk is there, will it be any good? Will it be good, but not as good as a home country made one of X5 to X10 the cost and so on. The key question for me is will it provide listening pleasure commensurate with or better than other gear at the same price?

Anyone else heard or owned any Mei Xing gear?

Chris

have used a ming da mc88 for about 4 years with no grief ,changed all the glasswear after the first year .due for a new set of KT88`s this year.sound is first class driving my refurbed IMF studio 50`s.in fact i am so impressed i intend to buy the ming da phono amp just for the hell of it.Other amps come and go but the ming da has stayed despite its low cost.try one you wont be sorry.
ray

I bought a Yaqin MC-10 in March last year to try out and as a back-up whilst waiting for my 260z. I was curious to try a valve amp after reading Markus Sae's report of an experiment to assess perceptions of valve/solid state sound in a thread here.

Mine sounds pretty good, is very un-fatiguing to listen to and does particularly well on acoustic music and simpler tracks, all though is by no means embarrassed by heavy rock. It hasn't disintegrated, set the house on fire or been anything less than reliable.

It came with a circuit diagram and would be within the ability of any guitar amp tech to repair, so no worries about warranty/etc.


Hello. Great forum! Can anyone point me to this experiment/report? I tried searching and couldn't find it. Very interested in tube vs. ss at the moment.

Thanks for any help!

Mine is a kit design from Diy HIFI Supply : Ella (http://www.diyhifisupply.com/)

Mine doesn't look like the latest version on the site now, it changed last year sometime.

Very happy with it, even when it was in basic form it walked all over my 32.5/snaps/160 into SBL's the time. Various upgraded components later it's easily the best amp' I've ever owned.

Brian

Yes. This is one of my preamps, stiil using it:

http://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=27742

no Ming-Da here, but my Cayin HA-1A is sounds hot-shit and built like a shit-brickhouse.

PACE

Just bought a Yaqin VK 2100 for the sake of it !
I must say i am bloody impressed with it.
It kicks the crap out of alot expensive amps out there.
Tight bass and a huge open soundstage that made my jaw hit the floor.
Bloody good vfm imho.