Yaqin MC-84L Tube Stereo Amplifier Review

[Ajax]

6 people voted for it as a huge accomplishment.
Most tube amps will sound pretty much the same as this one, there is a sweet spot where distortion and noise are bearable, in fact close to a solid state design.
Which produces a better sound for ten times less money. Especially in the bass which will always remain problematic with tubes, that is admitted by all.

I guess that is why staticians often delete the extreme results of a survey, to eliminate the nutters or those trying to discredit the results or who have simply ticked the wrong box by mistake.

If we assume that the goal of this site, and Amir's work, is to identify gear that allows us to hear what the musician, mixer and mastering engineer inteded us to hear, then it follows that we are searching for products that do not alter the music (signal) or at least as little as audibly possible.

With this thought in mind I place tube amps in the same category as turntables, i.e. they are both "feel good" and "look good" gear, but neither actually do good with regard to the playing back of music. Another term for this is being "woke", you want to "feel" that you are somehow cool or superior or vituous because your gear is "diffferent" in someway or retro or whatever.

The best advise I ever received is that "your in trouble when you start to believe your own bullshit". The reality of tubes and LPs (analogue), which Amir has demonstarted time and time again, is that they are greatly inferior to solid state and digital in supressing noise and distortion and that is really all you need to understand.

 

[rank]

My guess is that would be the level where the noise and distortion are mostly still smothered by the background noise in a room which may also be the point at which your speakers start to distort more noticeably. Say your room has a background noise of 40db and you play music at 80db then an amp with a SINAD of 40db might sound clean enough and you might enjoy the rolled off bass and treble as too much of those makes your speakers distort. From there the speaker distortion may dominate the sound up to the point where the amp is clipping very badly.

Yes, the compensation of defects but it must be calculable, do not forget that it's the brain that listens.
And that the ear has a physiological curve, it's the isosonic line. Which demonstrates that the sensitivity is higher between 1 and 5 kHz. 1200 Hz is about the upper limit of the voice.
All this has been known since the beginning of the last century.
We must be able to quantify all this.

 

[DanielT]

Anyway, many will go Topping B100
and then connect a vinyl...

Seriously if you compare this against 2 topping B100 amp's 299,- each so besides pre amp same price an you do a blind test guess there is no comparison/competition regarding sound quality.!

Then, to add tube glow coziness to it all put two of these on them:

Pardon our interruption...

Or some similar tubes that you only have for tube glow as decoration.Or if you want to make it as easy as possible for yourself, ..candles.

 

[DanielT]

It is an awful implementation. Ironically, most of the distortion is likely from the solid state phase splitter, not the tubes. Incredibly incompetent design.

I saw a few examples of that old saw about "tubes have second harmonic distortion which may be pleasing." That myth refuses to die.

Even apart from that it is a myth so why tube amps to get second harmonic distortion?
Tube amps are often so expensive. Why not plug in a distortion effect box instead? Or choose speakers that have a lot of second harmonic distortion? There are many such speakers, which also do not have to cost much.

That IF someone, reason I leave aside, wants to color the sound with second harmonic distortion.

 

[SIY]

Even apart from that it is a myth so why tube amps to get second harmonic distortion?

Distortion order is a function of topology, not active device. Run any circuit single ended and 2nd will predominate.

People are entertained by the myth. I'm entertained by tube amps, but the ones I use are engineered so the don't audibly degrade the sound.

 

[rank]

I guess that is why staticians often delete the extreme results of a survey, to eliminate the nutters or those trying to discredit the results or who have simply ticked the wrong box by mistake.

If we assume that the goal of this site, and Amir's work, is to identify gear that allows us to hear what the musician, mixer and mastering engineer inteded us to hear, then it follows that we are searching for products that do not alter the music (signal) or at least as little as audibly possible.

With this thought in mind I place tube amps in the same category as turntables, i.e. they are both "feel good" and "look good" gear, but neither actually do good with regard to the playing back of music. Another term for this is being "woke", you want to "feel" that you are somehow cool or superior or vituous because your gear is "diffferent" in someway or retro or whatever.

The best advise I ever received is that "your in trouble when you start to believe your own bullshit". The reality of tubes and LPs (analogue), which Amir has demonstarted time and time again, is that they are greatly inferior to solid state and digital in supressing noise and distortion and that is really all you need to understand.

I still have some (I'll keep 2 DD models) vintage modified turntables (change or even addition of plinths, installation of mains sockets, ground and cinch and removal of all automation among others) so that they are easier to use. This is for the non-digitized records of which I make CDRs, & an old cassette recorder (Teac) for the tapes.
Which will now I think, forty years after Philips and Sony released the CD red book, will never be reissued alas.The industry has only one obsession, to bring out dozens of times the same material, known since its first release...
But this takes us away from this fabulous integrated tubamp.

 

[early rejecter]

Another term for this is being "woke", you want to "feel" that you are somehow cool or superior or vituous because your gear is "diffferent" in someway or retro or whatever.

The best advise I ever received is that "your in trouble when you start to believe your own bullshit".

Perhaps not in the way you intended, but that second sentence is a perfect follow-up to the first.

 

[Hart]

I didn't think anything could be much worse than that awful Carver Crimson tube amp. Two really crummy watts. Especially bad when you have tube amps from sixty years ago performing better. Leader of the hall of shame.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

6 people voted for it as a huge accomplishment.
Most tube amps will sound pretty much the same as this one, there is a sweet spot where distortion and noise are bearable, in fact close to a solid state design.
Which produces a better sound for ten times less money. Especially in the bass which will always remain problematic with tubes, that is admitted by all.

Excellent observation. People who have never heard tube amps think they can actually 'hear' the distortion like some crackling due to poor connections lol. You can't actually 'hear' it, but can feel it in that it sounds smooth and open. One can never - or rarely - say a tube amp sounds cold and sterile or clinical. Some like that clinical sound, and that's ok. As for the bass, we now live in an age EDM and HipHop where low bass rules, so it's more practical to get SS amps - provided the right speakers (or subwoofers) are used.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

They don't seem more real. Real life doesn't have film grain, nor does it run at 24 fps. We as viewers though, have watched movies with such limitations for decades so anything too high fidelity seems not real, even though it really is.

You have a point. But it all comes down to our perception of things - how we grew up, where we grew up - all these things are factors that influence our perceptions in audio, visual, taste and even touch.
But as for realism, then everyone should listen to classical music and acoustic jazz if they want real sound? I know I do! But I do appreciate all the others as well.

 

[GXAlan]

They don't seem more real. Real life doesn't have film grain, nor does it run at 24 fps. We as viewers though, have watched movies with such limitations for decades so anything too high fidelity seems not real, even though it really is.

Maybe that’s the example of transparency sometimes not being preferred. For photos and videos, noise actually tricks the brain into perceiving more detail even though it’s not there.

https://medium.com/photo-dojo/dont-fear-the-grain-263a37a64b87

I am not advocating that for my own audio systems, but I do wonder if any of this helps explain why some people enjoy vinyl and why tubes can sound pleasant when listened to in isolation without comparison.

 

[JakeK]

View attachment 401312

Hands just look weird in photos. Both versions look wrong TBH.


Joking aside yes it looks like you can see more detail but if that extra detail on the right is just noise, whereas the one on the left is a little out of focus and both of them look bad what's the point? We should add noise to mask bad equipment or material?

 

[Mr Vinyl]

Hands just look weird in photos. Both versions look wrong TBH.


Joking aside yes it looks like you can see more detail but if that extra detail on the right is just noise, whereas the one on the left is a little out of focus and both of them look bad what's the point? We should add noise to mask bad equipment or material?

It's not to mask, but to enhance good equipment and material.

 

[rank]

On this last page, interesting problems are raised. I believe I am not making an excessive simplification by repeating here that our senses are easily deceived. Our ears, but also vision, taste. A film is unreal, like a sound recording.

 

[Mr Vinyl]

On this last page, interesting problems are raised. I believe I am not making an excessive simplification by repeating here that our senses are easily deceived. Our ears, but also vision, taste. A film is unreal, like a sound recording.

Sometimes, it's fun to live in the Matrix - as long as we aren't hurting anyone and no one is trying to hurt us.

 

[rank]

A philosopher now!

 

[LTig]

It's not to mask, but to enhance good equipment and material.

Nope. Adding noise enhances bad equipment and material because it fools our senses. It spoils good equipment and material, though.

 

[pma]

Distortion order is a function of topology, not active device. Run any circuit single ended and 2nd will predominate.

If it is only a function of topology, then please show me a tube power amp with THD of -120dB at 1kHz/4ohm/100W . You know very well that tubes cannot reach parameters of the SOTA solid state amplifiers, because the same topology cannot be used for them and because of their limited output current that asks for use of the output transformer. And, a complementary tube pair would need new discoveries in the field of physics.

I'm entertained by tube amps, but the ones I use are engineered so the don't audibly degrade the sound.

You are doing controlled double blind tests vs. SOTA solid state amplifiers to support your claim?
"Any proof?"
What kind of controls?
Or just an anecdotal statement?

 

[kemmler3D]

Amazing, this amp must sound so musical!

But in all seriousness $600 is too much for a distortion-focused FX box with so few settings.

 

[pma]

Amazing, this amp must sound so musical!

I would rather say crappy .