Yaqin tube amps: any further thoughts?

Hi everyone i am new to this forum but would like to say my Yaqin 20l just arrived and i really like it so far. I can give a full review in a few days when i have really sat down and gave it listen. So far great build quality that i can tell.

Welcome to AR, looking forward to your review.

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back to this forum. I think we all know the story, Kids, Wife, life.

First let me say I was a die hard transistor guy. I have right now all Classe Delta series components.

So I ventured into the tube world with not much knowledge, but have been educating myself over the net.. I have found out not to take myself to seriously having been in this hobby for at least 20+ yrs. I do take my music serious.

Anyhow I am not a professional reviewer of any sort so please for give me for any mistakes or misunderstandings. I will be as honest and subjective as I can. Just stating what I hear and what music I listened to

So here we go.

First off the packaging and shipping carton (which was double boxed) was out standing.

Instructions were very good all was in order,clear English,even some info on biasing(good for us newbies) I would still check out the internet for a video on biasing just for comfort sake.
After unpacking the quality is quite apparent. Solid heavy construction along with fairly decent power cord as well as nice binding posts they look like WBT? Seem to be very good quality.

Now lets plug it in. Everything. Does what it should, tubes glowing (El34's) along with 6J1. Little blue glow by volume control.

I hooked to my old Sony 999es DVD,super audio cd player. Using transparent music link super RCA interconnects. That's pretty much it for components. I also am using Kimber cable 12tc and WBT banana plugs.
The speakers are DC10audio Berlin mini monitors.

All my listening was done in Ultra Linear mode. Did not have time to do A/B comparisons between the two modes.

I let everything warm up for 5-10 mins. The first song I played was from Diana Krall Love Scenes track 4 "Miss You So". My first thought were how come at quater volume it seems a lot louder than my Delta serries CA2200 amp. ( I've read that tube amps have more current which gives it more volume) this is not what I know only what I've read.

Next I skipped to track 1 "All or Nothing at All" of the same album.
Something still seemed amiss. Volume was there but it needed something. It sounded hollow, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.


Thats when I thought I should let the Yaqin run for awhile and see if it could get better. So I popped in Holly Cole collection Vol.1 and let repeat for about 14 hours.

After the 14 hour burn in or whatever we want to call it. I played Dire Starits the very best of track 3 "Romeo and Juliet" this amp did not let me down keeping the volume between 1/4 and 1/2 I could really not believe this. The vocals were realistic the bass seemed fast and open. Time to switch to track 5 "Private Investigations". All the sound is there I could hear the glass breaking in the back ground. The breathing the creaking of door and when the bass came in it was not lacking or at least I did not feel the need to turn it up. The little Yaqin seemed to be in good control all musical nuances.

Next I played the cd Midnight oil's "Blue Sky Mine " track 9 "One Country" this time I was more than surprised at how this little amp made me feel. The distinctive voice of Petter Garrett was crisp and clean. The bass and guitars were upfront and clear. I next skipped to track 10 "Anartica" I can not lie I pushed the amp on this song I put it to 3/4 or more. Expecting the bottom to fall out or the unit to basically shut down. Not gonna happen. Everything once again was it should be the haunting voice of Mr. Garrett was, well haunting! When he cuts in with the phrase " one place left in this world"

I am very pleased with the Yaqin ms20-l. I think from experience the little amp needs some time to warm up. I have been running it now for about 30-40 hours. It seems to be getting better every hour. Oh yes I did replay the Dian Krall cd. Much, much better atfter the 14 hours burn in. I did not think that it would make so much differance, but take your time and let this amp do its thing. For it will not disappoint and I have to say I am hooked tubes.

Just let me say in retrospect I love my Classe gear
It can produce pure magic and I love it.

I just have to say for anyone looking to get into tubes for a budget price before they make a move into the higher end markets. You should at least give this a serious listen. Well that's it for now. I would like to thank Mr Song Gao very friendly fast service. He has an e-bay site look it up he is in Ontario, Canada.

I also have ordered a shanling cd3000 top loading player. We will see how these mate together.

Thanks for reading. I would love your feed back. Thanks.

My equipment

Classe Delta Series
Ca-2200
Cp-500
Cep-100

Speakers
Monitor Audio PL-100
Dc10audio Berlin mini monitors

Yaqin ms-20l
Sony 999es

Thanks for your comments, Hearingaid, and welcome to AR forums.

It would not be unusual for tube amp (or any amp) to need 100+ hours before it sounds its best.

This thread is a little outdated, but I want to add a little to it.

I own the Yaqin 13S which is an update of the 10T. Right from the beginning it sounded better than most ss amps I've listened to, but I discovered that with the right tubes, this amp really shines way above the norm. I use Svetlana winged =C= for power and Full Music for preamp duty. The result is a truly holographic soundstage with solid images throughout. The best way to describe the sound is that it sounds real, real instruments and real people populating a 3D space.

Only twice have I heard soundstaging and imaging this good and that was with relatively very expensive SS gear. I think the SS gear in those systems produced a bit more air between instruments than the Yaqin, but the Yaqin sounds better is some ways too.

To make a long story short, it doesn't get "much" better than this. I realize too that I might have just gotten lucky and the synergies just fell into place with my system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YBArcam

Maybe I should read the review in full, but I suspect Ebaen may have later said what the Decware does better than the Miniwatt. That's what I find happens in a lot of pro reviews. They rave about how a incredible a budget component is (when was the last time you read a bad review?) but then ultimately they conclude it falls behind it's more expensive competitor in certain respects.

But like I said, I don't have any experience with the Miniwatt or Decware. What can one expect for $189 from an integrated amp though? If the Miniwatt is all that it should be a game changer. I'd be interested to see if in ten or twenty years down the line it is still remembered as more than a flavor of the month product.

In the review I mentioned from the other forum, the reviewer noted that the Miniwatt had no serial number. This is a major concern. He was unsure if his amp had some sort of defect. What if a run of N3's had a specific defect? Without serial numbers how is Miniwatt going to trace this? Are they even interested in doing so? This is another reason why I'd pass and purchase instead from someone else who is interested in releasing a quality product.

I wonder if Yaqin amps have serial numbers. I don't see one in the eBay pic the OP linked to. What kind of support will you get if you plunk down $500 and the amp develops a problem? I know there is a warranty shown on the eBay page but if I had to use it I'd be holding my breath.

Do these products truly sound good and compete with products 5 and 10 times the price, or do people just love them because they sound good for the money and represent a cheap way to get into tubes? If it's the former then perhaps I will have to change my outlook.

For now I think I'd rather save up and buy a 20 year old integrated from Audio Research (for example), and be assured of a certain level of sound and build quality, support if I need it (even when outside of warranty), and a stable resale value. And it would likely be the last tube integrated I'll ever buy. Might take a few years to save the cash, though. That's the part that sucks.

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This amp does compete, and even surpass many (classic) amps, tube or other. Great little amp! Compares well with Dynaco st-70;AR D-76A; Harmon Citation 2,ect.