Aiqin/Oldchen Tube Amps
- Thread starter bubba42
- Start date
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
If done right, open baffles would look great. I just lack the necessary skills to build. These old vintage speakers look good though
The advantage of open baffles is space saved. My living room is rather crowed due to the size of the B&W DM-16 speakers. They stay as they were Dad's. Sound great though.
Don't sell yourself short my friend. You can certainly build a nice pair of OB's. Home Depot will make all the straight cuts on the plywood or MDF you buy there. All that's left is cutting the speakers holes with a jig saw and adding some L bracket supports. OB's are big but thin so they don't take up much space while stored against the wall but when played they need to be pulled out a good 3 to 4 ft from the walls.
Those sweet Daytons ( and they would drop right in these empty holes ) powered by the Aiqin paired with 15" Alpha woofers ( 2 or 4 ) driven by a single $80 Yung plate amp will bring tears to your eyes.
bubba42
Active Member
I am trying to think of something small, that the wife would approve of. Something just for the 8-inch full range driver, nothing else. I wonder if I could put that in a fairly small ported bookshelf enclosure or a very small OB setup. I don't think she'd let anything large fly at this point.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
Ok, dumb question I guess, but this is my first tube amp. So the Aiqin is rated at 10 wpc in it's standard configuration. Without any meters, roughly what is dial setting on the volume knob where I can get maximum power, without audible distortion? In my solid state days, I would say 1 PM on most amps was it before things started to get ugly. And I've heard it's not the amp you have to worry about, but damage to the speakers. Any thoughts? Are tube amps different? Thanks.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
It depends on the efficiency of your speakers.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
You can run any integrated amp with a preamp by maxing the amp's volume and using the preamp to control the output level. Won't hurt the amp one bit.
It makes sense if the amp lacks inputs and the preamp has several. Or if the preamp has two sets of outputs it would allow for bi-amping or for a line level connection to a sub.
It makes sense if the amp lacks inputs and the preamp has several. Or if the preamp has two sets of outputs it would allow for bi-amping or for a line level connection to a sub.
No problem so far with my amp. I'm loving it, it obviously is just a little light occasionally on the power for my 87.5 dBA speakers and was curious how far I could push it without damaging the speakers. Sounds like there is no simple answer and I just need to crank the volume as far as I want and listen for distortion. As for the preamp, I was looking for ways in the future to add remote control volume and perhaps some additional inputs.
L-82
Super Member
Mine too, zero noise from the amp a slight hum at the speakers but nothing to declare with the music playing.
mjw21a
Super Member
Ok, received my amp today. Very nice sounding right out of the box though I felt it was missing a little something. I swapped in some NOS Soviet era coin bade 6P3S-E's for an immediate improvement in the sense of air and space.
Does anyone have any suggestions on the other 3 tubes? I don't even know what they are. Nothing I have in my other annoys anyways so I'm going to have to order something in
View media item 7493
Does anyone have any suggestions on the other 3 tubes? I don't even know what they are. Nothing I have in my other annoys anyways so I'm going to have to order something in
View media item 7493
mjw21a
Super Member
Yes, I've a Yaqin MC10T (Mundorf ZN caps & Tocos Cosmos pots, mix of new & NOS tubes) which drives some B&W DM-16 speakers.
I'd say that the Oldchen driving Dayton PS220-8 based speakers is better in its stock unupgraded form than the Yaqin ever was. Right mow though the Yaqin is definitely the better unit though I'm not sure for hope long. Those B&W's were broken in before I was 1/3 my age and the tubes in the Yaqin are well and truly broken in. The Mundorf ZN's and Tocos Cosmos pots will still take a while to break in.
The Oldchen and my Daytons have a long way to go before they're broken in. I believe that with the same component replacements this system has the potential to beat my main system, and for a lot less money. Its currently wired for pentode operation which with the Daytons has more volume than I'll ever want or need. Will rewire it sometime
There is one thing which this thing excels at. Music seems to have a distinct sense of, well, timing. Not something I've heard before and I can't think of another way to explain it. Not as light, airy and liquid as the Yaqin though if break in doesn't provide it, I'm sure tube rolling, cap and volume pot upgrades will
A very solid base to build a system on.
I'd say that the Oldchen driving Dayton PS220-8 based speakers is better in its stock unupgraded form than the Yaqin ever was. Right mow though the Yaqin is definitely the better unit though I'm not sure for hope long. Those B&W's were broken in before I was 1/3 my age and the tubes in the Yaqin are well and truly broken in. The Mundorf ZN's and Tocos Cosmos pots will still take a while to break in.
The Oldchen and my Daytons have a long way to go before they're broken in. I believe that with the same component replacements this system has the potential to beat my main system, and for a lot less money. Its currently wired for pentode operation which with the Daytons has more volume than I'll ever want or need. Will rewire it sometime
There is one thing which this thing excels at. Music seems to have a distinct sense of, well, timing. Not something I've heard before and I can't think of another way to explain it. Not as light, airy and liquid as the Yaqin though if break in doesn't provide it, I'm sure tube rolling, cap and volume pot upgrades will
A very solid base to build a system on.
Do they all come wired in pentode? I thought this was a SET amp... Also, any idea if there's any global feedback?
