Valve intergrated - bargain?

just found this on ebay. had a look at their shop. seems real enough. seems well knocked together, apart from some of the tubes being slightly on the pxss, but still. what do you reckon? worth a try?

http://www.edenlake.com/

 

i linked to the cable section. the loudspeaker leads they have appear to use wbt locking connectors. i would say that there is very little chance of those leads being bad value for money. obviously, they may sound bloody awful, and they are unlikely to be the very last word in transparency, but thats still a good price.

 

The amp looks good value. Nicely made and the 6L6 type of valve shouldn't be overlooked. Shame it looks like the bias setting is underneath. I wonder why they do that

What speakers are you going to run with?

 

That looks very similar to Icon Audio amps, which I know are also made in China. Very possibly the same manufacturer.

-- Ian

 

Ian, most likely. The Icon is designed to use EL34's though.

 

I thought ''Icon Audio'' too when I saw it.

Its all hard wired which is great, and the wiring looks very tidy.

The alps blue pot is definately going to be worthwhile, as would be asking for it for less money with no valves (and buying non-stock ones).

Shame you cant get a look at the transformer. Other components look fairly standard stuff, but at 400 quid, I doubt you'd do better, even second hand.

Do they do money back guarantees?
NB How efficient are your speakers?

 

actually, i've just seen the blue light on the front of it. someone get wadia-miester in here!

 

according to the site there is a 12 month warranty. my speakers are cyrus icons and are pretty efficient ad there is no midrange/ treble driver as such.
as i have just spent several hundred pounds on a phono stage, i would probably like to give my system a chance to stretch its legs with the new kit before i changed the amp. i am very interested in the whole valve thing though and would love the opportunity to hear my set up with some tubes.

anyone got any opinions on those speaker cables btw?

 

Funnily enuff, edenlake just got mentioned over at HFC, and I looked them up. Not convinced as they do most of their trade via ebay. And Shanling don't seem to be too keen on such "dealers". Check their warning on http://www.shanling.com/index_e.html

HTH

 

Shanling now have a distributor network in place enabling them to sell their gear with a very healthy mark-up in the West, so I'm not surprised by their attitude at all...

The safety issue they raise is a complete red-herring, of course. They have to look after their dealers and distributors, that's all there is to it.

-- Ian

 

Norwich?

Stuff the Icons in the boot of the car, and go down to Diss to see the Emporium. Its only a glorified shed, but there are more second hand valve amps than you can shake a stick at. You could see how the speakers respond to different valve amps there.

NB You would need an appt.

 

I take your point. Though couldn't this be said about the relationship b/w many companies and 'authorized' dealers as distributors etc.
And, in the case of edenlake, are they then effectively 'grey importers'?

 

With some of this Chinese gear the whole thing's a grey area, as many of the companies concerned will happily sell their Chinese-badged gear to anyone who asks while also rebadging it and selling it at a much higher price through a distributor network. The brand known in the West as Vincent is an example of this. No doubt as Chinese audio exports take off, it'll become harder to buy direct. When the Shanling gear first got Western notice, it was pretty easy to buy it direct from the factory in China, within months that was no longer the case. And the price went up, hugely, surprise surprise.

-- Ian

 

These Edenlake amps look like bargains to me. I don't see how you could go far wrong.

As for selling on eBay, if you start a company importing amps from China then eBay is a good way of getting the products into the market at cheap prices. Nothing wrong with that. It saves on dealer margins and the expense and difficulty of creating publicity for your products.

Oh, and go for the Alps option.

 

Theres a list HERE of manufacturers etc selling under other names. I think caution is recommended. These amps could be:JOEL:

 

good call on the emporium trip bottleneck. i may well give that a try in the not too distant.

 

This is a classic case of getting what you pay for - you're getting an amp that would be probably twice the price if sold through a dealer network, but without the facilities to audition, check out the exact example you would be buying, or someone to take it in and lend you a temporary replacement should it go wrong.
If you're willing to accept this, go for it. The build quality looks okay (though I don't like the look of the bit below the expanse of polished metal in the top right of the picture - looks like hot glue dripped all over the place, and a very large chunk of rather shoddy soldering), but nothing better than that - obviously an SS amp at the price will be better built because there's less of it to put together.
Oh, and on top of that I'd go the S/H route for that sort of money, as you're taking the same trade-offs as you would with this amp, but there's the possiblity of getting a real bargain and the concurrent knowledge that you won't loose anything should you decide to sell on S/H gear.
Simon

 

Here it is.


http://www.mei-xing.com/doce/pro4.htm

Manufactured by Mei-Xing, whom it is suggested also manufacture Icon amps.

Thanks Mart for the link. I'd read it a long time ago, but lost it. I'll book mark it!.

If you like valve amps, its worth having a look at the above site. Mei Xing seem to make some lovely valve amps (and have CE certificates too)

Im incredibly impressed with a selection of over twenty valve amps!!! - I'd love to hear what these sound like -



http://www.mei-xing.com/doce/pro10.htm

I want to live in China!!!!!!!

 

wow! that looks like a mosque!

 

They look beatiful, at least much better than mine.
I supose it's time to change mine....
Do they make also loudspeakers? might as well change them too..

and what about a 50 tube phono stage: I need something to substitute my heater and there is still in plan to buy a 32-tube phono stage next year.
Oh forgot: I might have to postpone this buy since I bought those damn racks.
I must see if I can get hold of my wife's bank account.