XiangSheng 728A. What gives?

phalanger

Active Member
Does anyone here have or tried this cheap chinese tube pre-amp?

On paper it looks interesting: circuit adapted from Marantz 7 design, 7 tubes total, 4 inputs, tone controls with bypass function. And it looks not too bad. Actually the face plate looks quite nice I think. The connectors look solid and the inside looks reasonable. Rather big circuit board with surprisingly many tubes compared to other such preamps.

The only thing that makes it seem too good to be true is the price.. this thing goes for under 300$. I am sortof tempted to try it but hesitant because I can't find much written about it, even though it appears to be available for some years already.

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I would love to hear from anyone who tried one of them.
 
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Never seen nor heard of it - is the $300 a "delivered to your door" price, and/or is there a US dealer/distributor?

The skeptics among us might opine: If it seems too good to be true... it probably is too good to be true.

EDIT: Upon reflection, it is kind of Vincent-y looking... is it a Vincent homage/clone/knockoff/ripoff/rebadge, perhaps?
 
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Looks interesting for 3 hundee, probably worth the gamble in my opinion..if you didnt like it im sure you could sell it for what you paid or real close in bartertown, I might look into one of these myself.
I guess you need know if you like the sound of the Marantz its modeled on, im sure the tube are going to the usual chinese get ya going variety so thats one cost to consider but that will be the case with any of the new cheaper tube gear.
It might not be too good to be true, i see alot of diy/clone kits on ebay all the time and they are pretty cheap and this is pretty close to some of them. It does look like the Vincent hybrid amps with the tube in window, i like that the Vincent stuff has tone controls and loudness circuit.
 
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It looks Vincent like for good reason but don't tell Slippers on.

Poultry...you starting trouble again?:D

Oh and by the way.....I was trying desperately to speed up wife and her girl friend today to leave early, but we didn't get as much as a start as I wanted. Flew into Durham yesterday night, and visited a few friends and we packed up a rental van and i'm now at Myrtle Beach with friends from Durham (6:15pm Friday) at the Breakers hotel having a blast on the beach. We check out at 11am Sat... driving back to Durham/Raleigh and I will visit a few audio stores before my flight leaves back to St. Louis. Then my brother in law is coming up to St. Louis on July 2 from Belton South Carolina. Wife made all these plans before I even knew what hit me. If I had known I would have sent you a message and would have made arrangements to try and come to hear some of that fine gear you have. Perhaps next year. I've been to Myrtle Beach enough now, its becoming a regular thing.
 
The thing looks well-made for the asking price. I have a question about these Marantz 7ish products coming from China. The 7 had a phono stage. Why don't any of these have one?
 
That does look like a decent build.
Realistically though one would needs replace/upgrade those 'tubes' almost immediately. Unlikely those are Mullards OR even RCA's
Then there are the elephant in the room questions on the pedigree of ALL the components fitted.
Cleverest to assume all are clones (Colloquially referred to as Fakes) until proven otherwise.
Only when those costs are tallied would one know what the real price is.
 
True, at the very least the tubes would have to be replaced right away and with 7 tubes that will be a cost factor. Still though, it is a very handsome preamp for the price. Other ebay preamps/DIY kits at that pricerange are typically much more basic, with no tone controls, no nice faceplate and small 2-tube circuit boards. So it seems thoroughly cheap even for chinese ebay standards.
 
Poultry...you starting trouble again?:D

Oh and by the way.....I was trying desperately to speed up wife and her girl friend today to leave early, but we didn't get as much as a start as I wanted. Flew into Durham yesterday night, and visited a few friends and we packed up a rental van and i'm now at Myrtle Beach with friends from Durham (6:15pm Friday) at the Breakers hotel having a blast on the beach. We check out at 11am Sat... driving back to Durham/Raleigh and I will visit a few audio stores before my flight leaves back to St. Louis. Then my brother in law is coming up to St. Louis on July 2 from Belton South Carolina. Wife made all these plans before I even knew what hit me. If I had known I would have sent you a message and would have made arrangements to try and come to hear some of that fine gear you have. Perhaps next year. I've been to Myrtle Beach enough now, its becoming a regular thing.

MB dwarfs anything in Florida and it's growing like crazy. We usually stay on the more peaceful south end ( Surfside/Garden City/Murrells Inlet ). Please plan to drop by on your next trip through S.C. We're one mile off I-26 at Harbison.
 
I see 4 little boxes with 2 leads going to 4 tubes, would those be power supplys for the tubes heaters maybee?
Im almost ready to pull the trigger on one of these, need to aquire some tubes though.
 
So - if one bought one and if one liked the way it sounded as supplied, with generic tubes... there is, I'd opine, nothing wrong with using the generic tubes...
 
So - if one bought one and if one liked the way it sounded as supplied, with generic tubes... there is, I'd opine, nothing wrong with using the generic tubes...
Sure i agree, you do not have to change the tubes..if it sounds good go with it.
In my experience the chinese tube stuff is pretty bang for the buck but usually a tube change will deliver some good results..thats were they are shaving $$ of the build cost. I just like tube rolling but its not set in stone that its neccesary.
 
Low cost, good sounding Chinese components have been going for some time now, I own a 70 watt tube integrated from China. Maybe at one time these things were all throwaway items, but I don't think that has been the case for a long time now. You will always have those who will turn thier nose at anything Chi Fi, whatever. I'd have zero hesitation buying many of these components.
 
I just heard one of these at a friends house paired with an Oppo BDP type CD player, Crown Digital amp, and a pair of high end Polk LSI speakers.

This system had replaced my friends CJ rig (the better stuff) with KEF 107.

I loved his KEFs, never a fan of CJ, but honestly, this sounded as good and in some ways better than his previous rig. Huge floating sound stage, warm but clear with beautiful mids.

The preamp was unmodified.
 
Does anyone here have or tried this cheap chinese tube pre-amp?

On paper it looks interesting: circuit adapted from Marantz 7 design, 7 tubes total, 4 inputs, tone controls with bypass function. And it looks not too bad. Actually the face plate looks quite nice I think. The connectors look solid and the inside looks reasonable. Rather big circuit board with surprisingly many tubes compared to other such preamps.

The only thing that makes it seem too good to be true is the price.. this thing goes for under 300$. I am sortof tempted to try it but hesitant because I can't find much written about it, even though it appears to be available for some years already.

vkDhZxC.jpg

DLZ7Z9q.jpg


I would love to hear from anyone who tried one of them.

So - if one bought one and if one liked the way it sounded as supplied, with generic tubes... there is, I'd opine, nothing wrong with using the generic tubes...

If it comes with Shuguang tubes some of those are actually pretty good.


I like the bypass feature. I wouldn't mind if it had no tone controls. My biggest problem is having gotten hooked on a remote! I think the look is B+ to A-, the build quality looks (in the photos) perhaps A- to A, the fact that they DELIVER this thing for $300 seems to be A+++. Someone mentioned Mullard or RCA tubes. Since a unit like this would not come with vintage tubes, most brands are still Relfektor anyway, and as Poultrygeist implied, what's wrong with Shuguang? If this is HALFWAY decent for <$300, let the tube rolling begin for those so inclined.

Phono stage? My several year old AR SP-16L (that I got a great deal on) had no phono. I waited and got a minty AR PH-3 real cheap to go with it. They sound great to me.
 
Why is it we are hypnotized by low price, even trying to 'explain it away' by fabricating reasons why it could be possible to achieve such inexpensive goodness with the use of 'price conscious' components... There is no magic here. No wondrous fabrication process that turns lead into gold... If the price seems suspiciously low for an amp that presents so well, you can be assured that all is not as it appears. And the person that considers price only in their purchase decision is this manufacturer's legitimate prey. Just sayin'...
 
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