Zero-zone ear 834

M

Mackpappy

Member
Hi,

Have any of you built/used the Chinese ear 834’s on eBay? I’d like to pair a tube pre with my st-70, but can’t drop huge $ right now. I am currently running a modified TC-750, which is quiet and sounds good. Wondering if it would be a lateral move. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! Geoff
 
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There's a few threads on DIY Audio about that clone where folks seem to like it. I was mulling building the kit myself for an office system I have. Would love to hear from others who may have built one.
 
I only see prebuilt units. I'd be in for trying one (kit or prebuilt) if someone wanted to split the shipping (if there's a break for shipping 2 or more).
 
Rhe kit you are talking of is a phono preamp. You might also add a line preamp or buffer to complete your set up.
 
I had one of the cheaper Ear clones that had a gain conteol on it. It wasn't really meant to be a volume control though. More to match the output of your cartridge, or balance the output so it would be around the same output of a tuner or CD player, etc. If I turned it up too far it would just add some hum.
Set at a reasonable level and it was fine. Unless your going to just use a turntable, the EAR is fine, but you should still have a volume control, or line stage preamp, or preamp with tone controls, a selector, etc to hook the EAR up to. The EAR is really meant to just be a phono preamp. I had mine connected to my ST-70 for awhile, but that amp has an added volume control. I used a seperate input selector box for my other scources. That way I didn't really need a preamp other than the EAR clone for my turntable.
 
Mackpappy said:
Hi,

Have any of you built/used the Chinese ear 834’s on eBay? I’d like to pair a tube pre with my st-70, but can’t drop huge $ right now. I am currently running a modified TC-750, which is quiet and sounds good. Wondering if it would be a lateral move. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! Geoff
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oh yeah. i cant imagine that tc-750 sounds better, but it does have a better signal to noise ratio.

the good one is the black board with gold traces. its optimization was developed on lenco heaven. some people buy the phono stage fully assembled then swap out a few parts, some build an alternate power supply. for $400, with dead quiet tubes you can have a $1200 phono amp.
 
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ceylon said:
oh yeah. i cant imagine that tc-750 sounds better, but it does have a better signal to noise ratio.

the good one is the black board with gold traces. its optimization was developed on lenco heaven. some people buy the phono stage fully assembled then swap out a few parts, some build an alternate power supply. for $400, with dead quiet tubes you can have a $1200 phono amp.
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I have the that tc 750 all modifyed and battery powered. Ear 834 is better , period and it is a very good match to a passive preamp to
 
I have had several of these. Pretty nice for the price they are charging. Lots of upgrade options to these as well that can be done.
 
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