Yaqin MC-84L Tube Stereo Amplifier Review

[Mnyb]

what a sloppy execution of the “art” they should be lambasted for this .

The correct and competent topology and design are some google searches away I assume ? But they’re to lazy as soon as it “works” sort of and looks nice its time to market they had to push this barely working contraption

Why not just copy some classic design buy good transformers and make it look nice as the lazy option ? Beats this cr*p ?

No one deserves this lazy “engineering” even if you want tubes . Infuriatingly horrible why not even make a little effort to engineer it properly

 

[SIY]

You are doing controlled double blind tests vs. SOTA solid state amplifiers to support your claim?

If I don't hear a difference sighted, doing a DBT is ridiculous. And you know that.

 

[Bob from Florida]

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.


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?

This particular amp is a poor design. To broadly put all tube amps in the same category is not accurate. The real question is : what level of distortion can the average individual detect? A THD of -120 db seems rather low and may be deep into "it just doesn't matter" territory. A properly designed tube amp matched to a sufficiently flat impedance speaker may not be distinguishable from a solid state amp in blind tests.
I realize this is not as entertaining as "piling on" another poor measuring amplifier....

 

[pma]

If I don't hear a difference sighted, doing a DBT is ridiculous. And you know that.

You may be biased by your attraction to tubes thus not hearing a difference in the sighted test .

 

[JakeK]

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

The photos are a bad example for me as the original looks bad and the added noise doesn't improve it.

 

[pma]

matched to a sufficiently flat impedance speaker

thus not universal. I do not understand why you guys protect the tubes. There is no single advantage of using them for audio in the 21th century.

 

[beefkabob]

I will have ALL THE DISTORTION!

 

[Mr Vinyl]

thus not universal. I do not understand why you guys protect the tubes. There is no single advantage of using them for audio in the 21th century.

There's no reason to add salt and sugar in our food either, but some claim that food or coffee tastes better.

HiFi: The Willsenton R8 Integrated Tube Amplifier is a NO BRAINER BUY. | Steve Huff Hi-Fi and Photo

HiFi: The Willsenton R8 Integrated Tube Amplifier is a NO BRAINER BUY. By Steve Huff This may be the biggest no brainer purchase in the history of HiFi high quality audio integrated amplifiers. Seriously. There has been much praise and press online and on YouTube about this amplifier, and as I...

www.stevehuffphoto.com

 

[NTK]

There's no reason to add salt and sugar in our food either, but some claim that food or coffee tastes better.

HiFi: The Willsenton R8 Integrated Tube Amplifier is a NO BRAINER BUY. | Steve Huff Hi-Fi and Photo

HiFi: The Willsenton R8 Integrated Tube Amplifier is a NO BRAINER BUY. By Steve Huff This may be the biggest no brainer purchase in the history of HiFi high quality audio integrated amplifiers. Seriously. There has been much praise and press online and on YouTube about this amplifier, and as I...

www.stevehuffphoto.com

You mean a fixed amount of salt and sugar for everything?

 

[Bob from Florida]

thus not universal. I do not understand why you guys protect the tubes. There is no single advantage of using them for audio in the 21th century.

It's not about protecting tubes. One may prefer tube amps for various reasons. Such as : ease of repair, not affected by static discharge, aesthetics, etc.
Objective measurements will consistently be better for solid state. Yes, you need to consider the speaker load and tube amp in question to optimize results. Unity coupled output stage can achieve damping factors between 15 and 20 which can widen your speaker choices.
This particular amp is simply not very good. If it were a point to point wiring design, it could be a candidate for modding for better results. Probably too much work being a PCB design.

 

[musicforcities]

The good point though: Here’s an opportunity to take a close look at the bottom end of the SINAD scale finally

View attachment 400643

Just like the top performing range, the bottom end has a mix of ultra cheap amps (using outdated chips) and some very expensive brands. That lowest rated carver amp is a pretty penny I think. But hey, at least Carver, like Nelson pass, is upfront that many of his sons are intentionally designed to be distortion machines, ie, alter the sound in ways you may or may not like. I mean this is the guy who also made “sonic holography” preamps that DO create an unreal exaggerated spatial sensation (sort of like apples Spatial Audio) for one person sitting within a 6” spot. And made his name by showing how he can “voice””his amp to sound like another brands amp Reproducing the recorded sound accurately is not always his goal.

And carver never seemed to care about mains noise. Decent thd but terrible s/n usually He favored massive power from relatively small supplies, noise be damned! Just play it louder on his massive ribbon speakers. That also measure poorly but sounded pretty cool…not accurate, but “cool”. lol.

So maybe this broken sad excuse for an amp is to the bottom rung what the Topping is to Benchmark: massive bang for your relative buck. Though in this case the value is a n EXTRA terribleness.

 

[antcollinet]

You may be biased by your attraction to tubes thus not hearing a difference in the sighted test .

That is not how perceptive biases work. They are not like prejudices - it is not that meaning of the word "bias"

 

[DonH56]

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.

Distortion order that dominates is (primarily) a function of topology; the absolute level is dependent on other things.

Interestingly, an ideal tube's distortion series is factorial, whereas it is exponential for a transistor, so a tube should actually have lower distortion than a transistor all by itself. That's not the way any real design works, natch, but I found it interesting when I first had to work through it all decades ago.

I read about a complementary tube years ago but no idea now what was involved and no hope of finding the article again. It involved some sort of special materials but IIRC there were a lot of questions about the paper at the time. The fact that I have not heard anything since makes me think it was either debunked or impractical.

 

[Gord]

Not everyone actually is looking for high fidelity as the words are defined by Webster.

I think the whole chain of events ends at our brain. What do we find most enjoyable.

 

[antcollinet]

Not everyone actually is looking for high fidelity as the words are defined by Webster.

How many though, are looking for low fidelity? At least, how many would admit to it?

 

[Mr Vinyl]

You mean a fixed amount of salt and sugar for everything?

Do you add sugar to your coffee or do you drink it naturally black?

 

[NTK]

Do you add sugar to your coffee or do you drink it naturally black?

Depends on my mood. Sometimes I like it black, sometimes I like it with some half-and-half, sometimes I like more sugar, sometimes I like none. If I am going to adulterate it, I want to do it with the amount of my choosing, at the moment. Not fixed for me by someone else whose taste probably has not much correlation with mine.

 

[AndreaT]

Depends on my mood. Sometimes I like it black, sometimes I like it with some half-and-half, sometimes I like more sugar, sometimes I like none. If I am going to adulterate it, I want to do it with the amount of my choosing, at the moment. Not fixed for me by someone else whose taste probably has not much correlation with mine.

That’s exactly the right word. Culinary arts are a form of adulteration of nature’s flavors. Not everything that is grown or raised in nature tastes good as it is. Most of it does not. Music is different: the instruments of the orchestra and the newer electronic instrument are inspired by Nature and its sounds and noises: the wind as it caresses the trees, the ice melting of an Alpine lake, birds songs, the rumble of an avalanche, the thunder and the rain, might have inspired the designers of the first musical instruments over a multi-millennia path of trial and error research, along with the evolution of theory from Pythagoras onward. No need to add flavor or adulterate musical instruments. I moved from a high distortion system of my first Philips cassette player in 1972 to the lesser distortion of a PAS-3x/ST-35, better and better speakers, solid state amplification, class D and SOA DACs, and never went back.

 

[Brian Hall]

Can both camps agree that this amp is not bad because it's a tube amp

Not me. I think tube amps are outdated and overpriced. Class D all the way.

 

[johny_2000]

The real question is : what level of distortion can the average individual detect?

About 1% (-40 dB) for untrained listeners.