imports from the east

I've spent a few hours today looking at the Cattylink site.

I just can't believe the value for money available.

All the products are shown in US dollars, for example I'm guessing $4xx means the product costs four hundred and something dollars.

The choice though - CD players, solid state amps, tube amps, speakers, its amazing. I wish I was over there to listen to them all..

check some of these out..



awesome looking monoblocks, about 1,800 pounds (plus shipping etc)



40w monoblocks, about 700 quid



70w Jolida integrated tube amp (enough watts for anybody, surely?) about 600 pounds.

check it out!

my wallet is itching!!

 

split the thread.

 

it's a real shame that most of the solid state amps they do are integrateds i'd be well tempted.
cheers

julian

 

a few more..



a lot of speaker for 300 quid!



a 300B single ended integrated for 300 quid plus import WTF?!?!




how about a 250W class A amp for 600 quid?!

 

Do these prices include shipping? Anyone know what the average shipping ptice is?

 

no idea about the shipping costs. Im sure you'd have to pay duty too.

Even with those taken into account though - wow.

 

I too have spent time dribbling down my shirt while perusing that site.
However, for VFM, how about THIS , and from sunny Nottinigham aswell.

 

you're probably looking at an extra 30 to 50 % on shipping and duty but even so where else can you get a 250 watt integrated that's based on a levinson for 900 quid.
cheers


julian

 

I had some experience with this last year - bought a Shanling SCD-T200C from China for $1500 US, plus $150 US for DHL courier. Duty & VAT came to £160 UK.
Duty on CD players is higher than on amplifiers and other goods I think. All in all I paid around £1000 Uk.... not bad when UK price was £2150!

 

Might even solve my rack problem for US$98?!!!



JJ

 

You can get them from the uk here http://www.edenlake.com/amplifiers.htm for £950 all in. I am concidering these amps and as alanbeeb paid £310 for courier and duty the £250 seems fair to deal with a uk company.

Especially when you look at the sh1tty exchange rate credit cards give

 

My former distribution company was going to be the UK distributor for Jolida products, great guys to talk to and their products seemed to have improved over recent years (they had some quite well published design and reliability issues over in the USA in previous years and models). Only problem was that at the time this company did not have CE approved equipment and they had no plans to get it approved and marked accordingly.
I notice of late that there are now sellers on ebay selling products from Jolida listing themselves as the UK's approved seller. This shows yet again that some people will always be tempted by a quick profit rather than giving a good product the right exposure and marketing!
Another US manufacturer who wanted us to handle their distribution was Canary Audio. I know they were dealing with a contact in Liverpool to handle their UK distribution at the time so we had to stress to them that they had to resolve any differences they had with their current UK partner so that we were not seen to tread on any toes.
Duty on amplifiers into the UK is 2% and on valves it's 2.7%. Shipping rates will vary from agent to agent and they will always try to make a good profit from a one-off personal import, so be warned!

 

Edenlake are doing a great job of bringing the stuff over, that's where I got mine from. That rack looks cool too. There's no doubt that there is some great value stuff coming out of China at the moment, and it's all massively underpriced compared to it's Western equivalent. It won't last though, they'll do what the Japanese did, so get in now whilst it's cheap!

 

Hi

Edenlake is good value for sure.

I think we may be comparing apples with oranges though. I believe that the Cattylink amp uses 805 tubes and the edenlake uses 845's?

They certainly seem to be made by the same manufacturer however.

 

The quality is improving at an amazing rate its certainly shaking-up the market. Personally, Ive benefited by gettting a decent valve amp for not alot of cash, before the chinese came along I had no hope of a modern valve amp.

 

Those MEIXING (MING DA) MC300B-845A Mono Blocks look awesome, however I think the pick of that website would be the VAL 211A's.

I have tried them and they were fantastic. Best valve sound I have ever heard by a long way.

I have asked them for a price including courier to Australia.

The racks are fairly common place in Australia, most decent shops stock them or something similar. However I was in a dealers today that sell the original version, where the horizontal support arms meet the vertical legs they are spring loaded and you dial in the amount of support tension for each piece of equipment.

If anybody is looking for a cheap(ish) in Audio terms, non valve mono blocks, you could do a lot worse than find a UK dealer for the little Nuforce Mono Blocks http://www.nuforce.com/technology.htm

I listened today and was very impressed.


Ken

 

those nuforce power amps 100wpc into 8ohms AND 4ohms suggests that they'll wilt under a speaker without a ruler flat impedance curve. als osuggests weedy psu's - cue tony....
cheers


julian

 

Whats the difference between 805 and 845's although the 805 has double the wattage at 40 which is more suitable to my electrostats although I dont care for the orange wire to the biggest tube :yuk: would have to change that for something silver

 

no idea! - I'll leave that one to someone like SCIDB.

 

julian

I am at a total loss to understand how they do what they do.

They were recomended to be auditioned by a dealer that I really trust, otherwise I would not have made the journey. This dealer only carries Bel Canto, NEW and Pass Labs amps.

They were the 70 watt version and were driving speakers that drop to 2.2 ohms and are rated at 84db.

We listened at levels I would not dream of at home, the Nuforce did not even break sweat. They are minute in size, I guess about the size of A5 paper and less than 2 inches high. I have been told that they easily see off a Belcanto EVo 2 and that the 100 watt version see's off an EVo 4 bridged to 2 channel.

Pre Amp was a Belcanto, source was a Belcanto 'Multi Player'

I am having a pair of the 70 watt's at home late next week, I will try them on Spendor BC1's TDL's and my Apogee's.

Ken