A10 EL34 Hi-Fi Audio Stereo Tube Amplifier Single-end Class - A Amp

Please keep in mind this review is from someone that has never used a tube amplifier before. I have been through tons of solid state amps and receivers since the 80's. Love to listen to music and blast a good home theater system and have separate systems for both. In the late 90's through early 2000's I taped a TON of live music using quality mics and gear so I know my way around audio components and what sounds good. I have always loved vinyl and love to play with gear so I decided to give a tube amp a drive and and see what the difference was.I didn't want to spend a ton, but I also didn't want crap. Did a little bit of research and came upon this little bundle of joy. Seems Boyuurange had a few of the US versions in stock in Amazons PA warehouse (I am in Upstate NY) showing next day delivery, so that made the decision easy as I hate waiting :).First off the packing and shipping of the product is super pro. No way this thing will take any damage during shipping with the way they had it packed. Came with updated English instructions that address a lot of the questions they are seeing on Amazon which shows they care about customer service. They also send you a nice welcome email after purchase with some good information in it.This little beast is heavy as hell. My wife about dropped it during the handoff with the UPS guy as she was not prepared for the weight. She was like, what the hell is this? Seriously, you could anchor a small boat with this amp.The build quality of this amp is top shelf IMO. The stainless steel case combined with the super heavy duty transformers is where all the weight comes from. Has two knobs, one for power one for volume. Nice heavy duty knobs, and the power knob makes a very satisfying click when you switch it on. All the speaker and rca ports in the back are solid as hell also.5 tubes come nicely packaged with it that are super easy to install. As another reviewer noted, one of the boxes contain two tubes so don't freak when you see 5 holes and 4 boxes. I had the amp set up and plugged in quickly.Keep in mind this is a integrated amplifier with a pre-amp stage that you can't bypass. Doesn't mean you can't run this with a different pre-amp, just requires a little more playing around with the gain/volume on both pieces of hardware. I know many purists will poopoo this kind of set up since you are going through 2 pre-amp stages, but I have played with enough audio gear in the field (pre-amps, amps, DA converters, etc.) to say, let your ears decide what sounds best.Since I have multiple audio play back devices (CD, DAT, Solid State Recorder, Vinyl, etc.) I needed to keep using my current receiver and hooked up the tube amp via the pre-amp outputs on the receiver to power the speakers. I am using a Pioneer Elite 2 channel network stereo receiver in conjunction with the Reisong tube-amp. Played around a bit, but found setting the Reisong volume to around 12 o'clock while adjusting the Pioneer to the desired listening volume yielded good results. Still have room to crank it up, but no need to. I am using Klipsch R51-M speakers for listening with this amp as high sensitivity speakers are a must for an amp like this. I have a powered sub-woofer I use with my vinyl and cd's, but have to turn off for my live recordings, or risk blowing out the sub :) Damn low bass response from Schoeps Microphones.Out of the box this amp sounds amazing and I can't wait to see how it will only improve with time. The soundstage is remarkably wide, natural and airy. I am hearing things I have never heard in my vinyl and recordings before. The attack and decay of instruments is amazing with crystal clear highs, clean mid's and tight, accurate bass. The tubes really do give a nice warmth to the music with out being overpowering or too colored. While my vinyl has never sounded better, this amp has breathed new life into my live music recording collection. Have about 800 hours of live music I recorded onto DAT 15-20 years ago. Gov't Mule, Phish, Dead etc. all sound amazing through this amp. The detail of the recordings really shines through and the soundstage created makes me feel like I am at the live show again. Going through and listening to all my favorite shows and it's like hearing them again for the first time.I will report back after I get more break in time on the amp, but so far this little tank of an amp has completely transformed my music collection. Can't wait to listen to more music! Pictures includedUPDATE 5/17/20Reporting back after really breaking this amp in with 100's of hours of music (Vinyl, CD, DAT). My opinion on this amp just keeps getting more positive.The first thing I want to address is some of the reviews that say this thing can't be turn up loud or you get distortion, pops, crackles, etc. I am not sure what equipment others are using, but something has to be wrong if you are having those issues, possibly the amp is not working properly? I played with many different ways to run this since I am running it into the pre-amp inputs on my Pioneer network receiver. I started out with the volume on the amp turned to the 12 o-clock position and then adjusted volume to the desired position on the Pioneer. Sounded good, but I like to tinker so I decided to apply the same logic I used when taping shows to my stereo set up. The less signal attenuation in your chain of equipment as you go from your MICS to recording media, the better the sound. So I cranked the amp all the way to max and then adjusted the volume on the pioneer. WOW, cranking the tube amp up all the way completely changed the sound. Cleaner, clearer, more airy, more detailed, just flat out better across the board. I can't turn the receiver up more than 50% now or it will make my ears bleed. Not distorted, just too loud! This is why I question some of the issues others are having with this amp to either user error, or a bad piece of equipment in your set up. With a pair of high sensitive speakers and a proper set up you should have no issue cranking this thing.This amp is the best purchase I have made for my listening enjoyment, EVER. The performance you get vs. the cost is pretty amazing. Combine that with incredible build quality and you just can't go wrong.Great amp, as I go through my music collection its like listening to these albums for the first time!UPDATE 1-14-21This is hands down the best purchase I have ever made for my listening pleasure. I listen to a lot of music while I work from home and this little amp gets a ton of use. Usually the first thing I turn on to warm up as I make coffee before tuning into my favorite morning radio talk show. Key point, always let this baby warm up before using, it will just treat you better.I love the way it even makes the radio talk show sound, like I am in the studio with them. There is such an airy realness to the soundstage this magic box produces that is hard to explain while blending in this beautiful tubetastic warmth that is never overwhelming, just...perfect...I listen to so much more music now because of this amp. A good vinyl pressing sounds so amazing with this amp so getting old classics I love but never had on vinyl has been a real treat. I can also vouch that it’s built to last. Had a bad power surge in my house that killed my internet modem, CD player and power strip the amp was plugged into and made a horrible sound....I thought for sure it was fried....nope, came back on and is fine...Just get it, you won’t be disappointed. The satisfying click it makes when I turn it on still makes me smile every morning, and that’s just turning it on....Update 4/12/22- Turned the amp on today, hard a pop in the speaker and now the right channel us completely dead in the amp. Tired switching cables, reseating tubes, etc, channel is completely dead. So bummed, I loved this amp, sent a note hoping this is something that can be fixed, was hoping to get more than 2 years out of this amp.....

This is my second tube amplifier from China. I have previously purchased a Yaqin MC-13S about 5 years ago and it's still going strong. This unit arrived triple boxed, the outer amazon box was labeled fragile and after years of ordering and selling online I have found that labeling something fragile is a magnet for abuse, and this was no exception. the outer box was in very bad shape. Fortunately the amp itself comes double boxed and protected with foam. The tubes come in 5 boxes securely wrapped underneath the safety cage.The amp itself seems well constructed and the polished finish is beautiful. Something to note and something I learn with the MC-13S is that it needs to be gently cleaned regularly or it will attract a lot of dust, scratches and stain very easily and it's a pain to clean. I have made a nice nylon cover for it to keep it from happening again.Setting it up is very straight forward, set the tubes in the proper socket and orientation ,plug your speakers, your source and the power cable, turn it on and let it warm up for a bit and you're set. The amp will automatically adjust the bias so no need to do anything. The sound out of this little amp is excellent, very warm and clean provided you have the proper speakers for it. It is most definitely not a 12 Watt per channel amp as advertised (maybe 6 watt) and it will struggle to drive anything under 90db efficiency. My amp is powering a pair of Klipsch Heresy that are very sensitive ( 96db) and can get to be quite shrill and shouty with solid state amps, but with this amp there's none of that.Now to the bad part. In my first inspection I found that the power switch is not mounted straight, so the knob sits bent very slightly to the right, it also came loose so I had to re tighten the screw that holds it in place. Next was the power cable, it does not make proper contact when plugged in to the amp socket and had to be replaced. The cable is just a standard IEC power cable so none of this was a big deal and was an easy fix but you shouldn't be expected to be fixing things like this on a new amp even at the low price. Finally, one of the EL-34 tubes was defective, this would really be an issue if you don't have any spare El-34, KT-77 or 6CA7 tubes around. Now the good part is I contacted the seller TubeAmplifierStore and they replied very promptly with all the info I needed about compatible rectifier and preamp tubes. They also sent me the schematic of the amp and a new tube, it arrived two days later.Overall I think is a great entry point to tube amps if you are curious about tubes and the kind of sound they bring to music or if your budget is below more know tube amp brands that can be quite expensive. Just make sure you have some efficient speakers or you're not really gonna get much out of this amp.UPDATE: It's been 18 months since I got it and It's still as good as back then, no issues at all. I bought socket adapters to replace the 6N2 preamp tubes with 12AX7, worked great but they're not connected the same so don't try it without socket adapters. Also bought an RCA switch, having 4 sources and only two inputs gets annoying fast. Lastly the price has gone up since I got mine, It's still great for what you get but not at the bargain price it once was.