YAQIN MS 30L or YAQIN MC-13S? Please advise

Hi, considering my first tube amp, and got two options - YAQIN MS 30L and YAQIN MC-13S.

Which one is better? Please advise. Thank you.

 

You will not be disappointed with the 30L , I believe. It does take some time to bed in. It is worthwhile rolling some tubes. I have just updated to the JJ kt 88s and I find them the best - even better than my GOLD LION kt88s. They have not even reached 15 hours of burning in.!! It is a complete waste of time listening to the YouTube reviews as the people who post these reviews seem to assume that everyone has cloth ears! The quality of the recordings they use are rubbish and impossible to evaluate anything. The only way you can check your system is by buying an expensive reference CD such as reference 1. It has helped me to properly evaluate the different tubes. I found that my jazz records were nearly all satisfactory but my classical quality of sound varied considerably - the CD set out the true position. Remember the Buddy Rich statement - music is either classical or jazz , all the rest is show business.!!

 

A mistake - I should have said kt77 and not kt88!! I am trying to evaluate the latter on another amp. and a bit obsessed with these tubes.

 

I think that I could elaborate a little for the benefit of members. I chose Yaqin because of their obvious size and their range of models but more importantly the company recognized the need for easy biasing. What amateur in his right mind is going to (try to) turn over a 50lb lump of metal, remove the bottom plate and then bias the tubes whilst still living.?

However Yaqin still has the China problem of relating to customers. I do not know why this exists , but I suspect that it is an endemic problem with the Mainland Chinese who do not , naturally, have English language skills and will avoid confrontation at all costs. For instance my 30L arrived with the bias set at .51v. The manual says it should be .45!! I tried, unsuccessfully, to find out whether the former was the proper bias for my amp since the fellow doing the final setup at the factory had arrived at that bias. No hope. I still do not know and have reverted to the manual recommendation. It seems to work but it is relatively early days .

I neglected to keep a record of the burning in periods and so do not know whether I have reached the optimum. There is still some harshness with my jjKT77. Another thing (among many!) which I do not know and wonder whether anyone can enlighten me i.e. does burning in mean playing a record or simply have the amplifier switched on. I raise this becasue the other day , I left my Line Magnetic switched on for a few hours before playing. The first record was harsh but slowly seemed to mellow after about 3/4 hour. Do the amplifier tubes have to be WORKING to burn in or reach proper operating conditions.?

Is anyone interested in starting a thread on Line Magnetic - i have a few choice words for that outfit!

 

I keep forgetting things! If you plan to have the 30l make sure that you have efficient speakers. The performance with my large Altecs at 98% exceeded that of my Monitor audio.

 

The Yaqin MC-13S uses common triode preamp tubes. The 30L uses a 6J1 that is equal to a 6AK5 that is not an audio tube. The 6AK5 is a pentode, not triode and triodes not only sound better in most cases, many brands of triode exist to tune the amp. Not so with a 6AK5. I am leery of that. So, I vote MC-13S as best amp.

 

BTW- two types Yaqin MC-13S exist. One with 12AX7/12AU7 and other with 4x 12AT7s. I would buy the 4x 12AT7s and RCA makes the best 12AT7 that are not expensive. But, either type is ok. If it has the 12AU7s, buy Brimar 13D5 or Pinnacle 12AU7 from ebay. Try RCA 12AX7 black plate (warmer) or Mullard 12AX7 long plate (ultra clear with lots of black space) or Raytheon 5751 windmill getter for a huge soundstage & more upfront midrange. You will be stunned on the sound. These MC-13S are highly rated on Amazon reviews.

 

Hey guys, got this:

 

Congrats

 

Thank you! I need to hook it up, now

 

Nice! Let us know what you think. I’m considering a Yaqin also.

 

I have Silk MS-38 which is just a rebadged/modified MS-30L. I'd give the 6J1 tubes a little break in time, and then I would change them out. I found the GE JAN 5654W to be relatively cheap, and an improvement over the stock 6J1's. I have had this amp for almost 4 years with no problems. I replaced the Yaqin Blue Bottle 6CA7's with Genalex Gold Lion KT77's. The stock tubes were really good. IMO, sounding a little fuller with less controlled bass than the Gold Lions. I would leave the power tubes in for awhile as you might find them fine after break in. The KT77's just sound different, more refined , I guess. Congrats on your purchase!

 

A point which should not be forgotten is that the 13s does not seem to have a remote. Why Yaqin does not include a remote for ALL its amplifiers is beyond me. The only valid reason is cost!? I , personally have no wish to jump up and down like a yo yo to avoid disturbing neighbours. Yaqin have one very attractive KT88 amplifier which sells very well according to Amazon - yet no remote! I would have bought it ages ago.

 

Yay, I hooked my new tube amp finally

Eric Clapton ‎– Slowhand
Label: Polydor ‎– 0600753407233, Polydor ‎– 5340723
Series: Back To Black
Format: Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Album, Remastered, 35th Anniversary Edition, 180 Gram
Country: Europe
Released: 29 Nov 2012

 

I am finally connected:

 

Looks good!
For anyone interested, I purchased my MC-10L from a reseller in Canada.

Apparently this guy tests everything before it goes out and has given me good support in the past.

Canadian HiFi Online | eBay Stores

Love this amp!

 

Great! Did you use state amp prior to this?

 

Yep, this is my first tube hifi amp. The original tubes are getting old so I’ll finally be changing to something proper soon. Figured I may as well use them up before spending more money and throwing working tubes into the landfill.

 

Same here, how would you compare the sound of state amp to tube one?

 

It’s hard for me to say. I got my speakers just before I got the amp and only briefly tried them on an Alesis RA-100 before the Yaqin arrived. So my TT, amp and speakers were all new to me at the same time.

But the system in whole is definitely the nicest system I’ve had by far.

 

Just curious, where did you purchase yours?

 

From official distributor here in Poland.

 

Congratulations on getting your first tube amplifier...
I have been on a similar journey and I also bought my first tube amp this year (recently bought my second) after decades of solid state amplification and matching speakers. I was satisfied with my setup, but couldn't help but notice that many people preferred low wattage tube amplifiers and matching high efficiency speakers. I decided I needed to listen for myself in my own home.
I bought a KingKo KA-101, 12 watts, push/pull, based on el84 tubes. I chose this amp because it met my list of criteria and had positive reviews on this and other websites. I thought it was important to have a good pair of high-efficiency speakers that that matched the low wattage amp if I wanted to do a fair comparison to my ss system. I got lucky that a pair of Altec A7-500-W were posted on my local Craigslist at this time and after consulting with a forum member who owns similar speakers, I bought them.
I have been listening to this daily for a few months and I now hear subtleties in the music I had been missing... I am enjoying the journey.

It looks like you have nice quality equipment that would work well with solid state or tube amplification. I am sure you will have a great time as you decide for yourself what you prefer.

 

Thanks, I got Klipsch RP-150M, for better sound, higher efficiency, but somewhow they did not do, so went back to Zensors 1, and it's much better, I think that the speakers is the area for possible improvement.