Not a CANOE...really just showing what I was looking at and ended up ordering.

Well, for better or worse I shot my amp wad...

Was looking at this preamp Yaqin MS-12 preamp

Wound up ordering this integrated amp, figure if 52W per channel isn't enough for the main space, I can piss off the wife and move it to another room and ignore her. I know that's a great idea.

Yaqin Integrated amp on order

Of course I didn't enter my CC info or use the paypal link from the Chinese website. I used the order form so they would send me a paypal invoice. Tried to pay said paypal invoice this morning. Credit card payment did not go through and I figured it was due to the location of the seller. A few minutes later I get a text from my bank asking me to call regarding my credit card. Call the bank and my card was flagged because I made a donation to a specific type of charitable organization that was not consistent with my past charges a couple of days ago and then tried to make a paypal payment at an unusual time for me to make online purchases.

Profilin' is WRONG, but I'm not offended by them using the available data to profile. I'm more upset about the amount of data they are gathering to be able to profile. Not sure how or if I'm going to adjust my spending habits/lifestyle.

Swank Force One wrote: Yep that's my component rack in those pictures. My suggestion would be to shop for that stuff used. That way you know it's good and someone else took th chance on the factory quality control. That said, the quality has skyrocketed on the chinese hi-fi gear. Yaqin in particular. I've had a Yaqin cdp through here that was great and I've had a cd-2 in my rig for about 4 years.

Not a lot of used tube equipment in my area. I did find an Onix integrated amp with an asking price of $550, but it has 1/3 less power than the Yaqin I ordered and it's a 2 hour drive each way to go see. Going to take the risk on Chinese QC.

Found some speakers I want to check out this weekend, but I'll wait until I see/hear them before I post details.

If you still can... check price on that unit on Ebay.

Swank Force One wrote: If you still can... check price on that unit on Ebay.

Do I suck at evilbay? Cheapest one I see is $459 + 95.xx S&H = $554.xx. The one I ordered is $529 with free shipping.

Oh then you're good. I didn't look, just knew that there's a huge amount of Yaqin stuff on Ebay and it may have been more secure. $530 shipped seems like a nice price for that rig.

I sure hope it turns out good!

I looked at evilbay last night once I saw the price on that website and checked prices again before paying this evening. Reviews I've found on that particular amp look pretty good and more consistent than some of the other Chinese tube equipment. It'll be nice to have an actual stereo again...

Another one near that price range would be one of the OddWatt designs. http://oddwattaudio.com/owpoddwatt.html Less power but they and their transformers are made in the US and if you want to talk to the designer with question, he's active on a couple of forums. I think his are kits however. He even is free with the schematics, for the most part.

Got my amp the other day and set it up last night! It is a Yaqin MC-10L (I think I had the model # wrong in an earlier post). Wound up with some Advent Heritage speakers for now. I've got about 12 hours on the tubes and am listening to some Led Zepplin at the moment. Pretty happy with this setup so far, but the combination of the amp & speakers is lacking a little thump from the bass for some music. The bass is not "muddy" it is just not as pronounced when listening to certain artists/songs. I may try to find some different speakers if I think the bass is too quiet after a few months and the tubes "break in". I've only had it at low volumes so far, but this combination isn't overcome by the volume of space I have (unless that is the cause for the lack of bass). I'll try to post some pics tomorrow (after I set up an account at one of the photo websites like Photobucket).

One question for those with more knowledge. Should I try to be at the low end or the high end of the recommended bias range for the power tubes? Right now I've got it set pretty much in the middle of the range.

I'm not familiar with tubes...

But yesterday I started cutting MDF for my little boombox project. This is my first time using a table saw, and it's working out okay. I got a little bit of burnage on the edges of the MDF, and I made a few mistakes, but I think I'll soon have all the cuts made. I only had 3/4" MDF, and it turns out I need 2 boards of 1/2" MDF.

I did a test of the drivers directly connected to the mini amp that I'll be using, and without a box or crossover, it sounded as good as a pair of little HTIB cube speakers.

Secretariata wrote: Got my amp the other day and set it up last night! It is a Yaqin MC-10L (I think I had the model # wrong in an earlier post). Wound up with some Advent Heritage speakers for now. I've got about 12 hours on the tubes and am listening to some Led Zepplin at the moment. Pretty happy with this setup so far, but the combination of the amp & speakers is lacking a little thump from the bass for some music. The bass is not "muddy" it is just not as pronounced when listening to certain artists/songs. I may try to find some different speakers if I think the bass is too quiet after a few months and the tubes "break in". I've only had it at low volumes so far, but this combination isn't overcome by the volume of space I have (unless that is the cause for the lack of bass). I'll try to post some pics tomorrow (after I set up an account at one of the photo websites like Photobucket). One question for those with more knowledge. Should I try to be at the low end or the high end of the recommended bias range for the power tubes? Right now I've got it set pretty much in the middle of the range.

Ever learn how to draw load lines? http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/129/e/EL34.pdf That will actually tell you what's happening with the biasing. (I've only just started to draw load lines, so I'm afraid I'm not the one to ask about it! )

Another thing to consider is the tubes. Most of the Chinese made tubes seem to get bad reps. Don't know myself if they're warranted but it doesn't hurt to have to some extra tubes to swap. And it's kind of fun http://tubedepot.com/el346ca7.html

Then you can always try to swap out the coupling caps, but I'd wait to do that until the end unless you find (on the internet) that they are pretty cheap.

Have you tried different locations for your speakers?

Ok, trying to post photos...let's see how bad I suck at this.

Amp in the dark...looks cool, dumb E36 M3 me forgot to take one in the light. <img src="#//s1313.photobucket.com/user/lizardhokie/media/Toys/IMG_0065_zpscf921d2e.jpg.html][/URL]"/> Speaker

<img src="#//s1313.photobucket.com/user/lizardhokie/media/Toys/IMG_0062_zpsc03c30ca.jpg.html][/URL]" />

Don't know jack about load lines. More research I'll need to do.

I ordered some alternate preamp tubes to try. Online research indicates these have the most effect, but there are the fewest options. They also were pretty inexpensive compared to the most popular power tubes.

I haven't tried new locations for my speakers as I only have the 6' speaker wires that I got from the guy who sold me the speakers. I had forgotten to get speaker wire & banana posts, so he gave me a set he had. I have a 100' roll of speaker wire on order from Monoprice.

Currently reliving the past. Eating Yaki Soba & listening to some old music that I got into when I was in young & dumb in Okinawa (also pretty much the last time I had a "real" system).

So how do I get rid of the link showing before the photo?

At the very top of your post, there is a grey bar with your name and date in it. There are two buttons on the far right: one is to delete your post and one is to edit it. Click the one with the pencil in the bubble to edit it, and modify your post as you need. You can add stuff or delete it. Just remember if someone quotes you (like I did previously), that won't change it. That bit will be frozen in time unless I edit it in some fashion.

In reply to RossD:

I understand the mechanics of editing my post, but fail to comprehend what I need to change/remove so the pictures show and the link doesn't.

Secretariata wrote: Ok, trying to post photos...let's see how bad I suck at this. Amp in the dark...looks cool, dumb E36 M3 me forgot to take one in the light. Speaker

I think if you remove all the stuff before the second < sign, and after the first > sign, it will clean it up. I don't know how that got in there, but I was able to quote you and edit it out. Nice looking setup, I bet it sounds fantastic!

So, this seems as good as place as any to ask this question.

I am looking to set up a small 5.1 system in a shallow, but wide, room. Polk Monitor 7s up front with a nice sub, some nice JBLs for the rear, and an undetermined center channel. My question is placement. Since these are rear speakers, and the couch and main listening area is against the wall, I don't think mounting them to the rear wall would be what I want. Side mounting doesn't seem like it would be a great idea if I were to point the speakers directly at the room, since they'd have to be in the corner to be even with the main listening area.

What about mounting the rear channels speakers a few feet back from the rear wall and point the speakers generally up and back? That's kind of what dipoles do, right? Am I crazy for thinking that this is the way to go?

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Thanks! I'll try look back to figure it out when my eyeballs aren't half closed...currently not making sense to me but I'm really tired.

I dug out my old (25 years old) Sony 5 cd turntable that's been sitting in a closet for about 10 years because I wanted to hook up a cd player with a headphone jack. It wasn't working at all when I tried to hook it up. I opened it up and messed around a bit, managed to get the tray to start working and manually ran the laser part way up & down the two rods and voila it works. I probably need to clean the dried up grease off the rods and relube.

Anybody able to recommend a safe cleaner to use for grease etc. inside a cd turntable? Be great if it was also safe to use on the laser lens and wasn't made from liquid gold squeezed out of the rear end of a leprechaun.

I use alcohol on a Q-tip for the old grease, but I try to never touch the lens for the laser unless it's dirty. Dry air only if possible.

Derick Freese wrote: I use alcohol on a Q-tip for the old grease, but I try to never touch the lens for the laser unless it's dirty. Dry air only if possible.

I'm worried about accidental contamination of the lens if the cleaner drips off the q-tip or comes as a spray.

I haven't messed with it yet as I managed to rearrange my equipment so I can get the big 300 cd changer on a shelf that is deep enough. I'll probably still hook up the 5 cd turntable because it is the only way I'll have a headphone connection, but I don't have headphones yet so I haven't gotten back to it.

OK, I'm back with more questions...

I picked up a vintage Dynaco ST-70 tube power amp and need to get a preamp for it. To test the amp, I hooked up a CD player to the input jacks and it was LOUD! Also hooked up my CD player through a DAC and it had the same effect. The cat now gives the speakers the same stink-eye she reserves for the vacuum cleaner...

I think I need to get a passive preamp, but will older models lower the voltage from the input source or do I need to make sure I get a newer one with a CD input? Reading online, it looks like most CD players put out about 2 volts while most other components put out about 0.5 volts (and phonographs are about 0.003 volts).

I plan on using either a CD player only or a DAC (to use multiple digital inputs) and it appears both will need to be stepped down.

Thanks for any info!

Just happened upon this, found it amusing, and thought I'd pass it on.

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article/review-osd-german-shepherd-outdoor-speaker

In reply to Secretariata:

I see three options. One would be to build a little box with an audio taper (logarithmic) potentiometer with an input and output. I'm new to tube amps but 10k-250k ohm is what I'd use, stereo or 'ganged'., or you could use two of them, one for each channel and then you'd have balance control. This would be the under $20 option and purchased from Radio Shack or the like. You could even put two inputs and one output with a selector switch.

Two would be to buy something like this: http://www.amazon.com/TC-780LC-Stereo-Booster-BLACK-VERSION/dp/B000RZXAHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375737438&sr=8-1&keywords=line+level+preamp

If you look at the pictures, there is one of the box and it states exactly your problem: Addition of a volume control between a line level source and a power amp.

Three would be to build a tube pre amp that has a volume. My favorite choice!

In reply to RossD:

1 - makes sense in that adding a variable resistance would cause a voltage drop that I could control to reduce the volume. Wouldn't give me any other features of a preamp such as tone controls or switchable inputs, but provides a basic solution to the immediate problem.

2 - seems to have the intent of increasing the voltage for a low voltage input such as an MP3 player or other 3.5mm input source. Don't think that is going to help as the DAC I tried is a box with somewhat similar purpose (but it may just be passive (zero net) gain for the CD input which I had not thought of, but doesn't really matter as the CD input is already too high).

3 - looking at prices, I can get a decent used preamp for less than a kit and not have to melt components with my sucky soldering skillz...kinda how I would up buying the ST-70 as I was looking for tube amp kits (temporarily forgetting my lack of soldering skillz) and found out it was a lot cheaper to buy a used ST-70 than it is to buy a decent kit.

So I guess I'm looking for the easy way out. Anti-GRM throw $ at the problem...

Any preamp will fix your problem.