I was looking for my next amp to replace hotroaded Viva 300p - and one of the contenders was Line Magnetic 219ia amp.
Not much info about it on the net - so i decided to share my experience.
It's chinese made from ~10-15 years ago based on 310A + 300B + 845 tubes.
There is newer model available now with some changes.
The specs say:
The build quality looks pretty good and internal layout is very clean.
Parts quality also looks pretty decent.
It's very heavy - almost 54kg.
Although a good part of it's weight comes from chassis thick steel - the bottom plate alone is 3.4kg.
Comparing to my Viva 300B push pull it's twice the size and twice the weight.
The unit i've got had very basic looking brandless 845s (the only marking on them is "Made in China").
The 310a's duty is served by some plane looking russian made tubes 10Z120.
The 300B's are supposedly fresh Psvane T-Series 300B-T. It's black colored and probably not so fresh as seller tried to present it - since it's out of production for quite some time...
I've tried the amp also with my own Psvane 300B-TII tubes - those are gray colored and priced ~40% more than the black ones.
The amp was used as a power amp only via "pre in" input+selector.
The preamp is ARC Reference 5SE.
The speakers are hotroaded Klipsch La Scalas with JBL tweeter and big REL subwoofer.
Sonically it was very different experience from my 300B push-pull amp.
First time i've heard sounds extend so much beyond speakers' width.
Also depth and layers where at the level i never heard.
Bass was good.
No complaints about high frequencies either - cymbals and strings sounds very good.
Perfect?
No quite.
First of all - it humed.
Playing with 4 hum pots improved the situation but didn't reduce it to the level that i don't hear from my seating position.
Bias was floating - every 30 minutes i was checking it and each time bias was changed. I don't know what it says about the design or the tubes - but IMO it's strange.
With my 300B's it had quite strong hiss. This disturbed me a lot. For me it's really would be a deal braker.
If only i could keep using my Psvane 300B-TII tubes. But i couldn't.
With these tubes the sound was way too blingy - it's very sexy and appealing at first. But after some time it's too much.
Also at complex passages all sounds got mixed up and even got to the level of cacophony.
Going back to the black 300B's made it much better, still a bit blingy.
But the midrange - vocals/brass/horns - became too thin. Trumpets/saxophones sounded very plasticky and not real.
Sure my 104db speakers didn't help to make hum/hiss bearable - still some other DHT amps i've tried were quieter (some noisier).
This is the only one that have hissed.
Having 4 hum trim pots is good IMO as it gives possibility to adjust hum for all tubes individually. However as i said above it wasn't enough to make it silent.
Power output wise in my setup - if to believe to the front mounted VU meter, the amp worked at less that 0.5w most of the time, during loud sections going up to ~2w, and at very very loud moments jumping to ~5w.
Feedback settings are 3db or 6 db - sound difference was at high feedback a sound a bit thicker, at lower setting is more airy with air around sounds.
I listened at low feedback.
In the bottom line - this amp can be a good solution for somebody that starting with tubes in general or single ended amps specifically.
It's not top of the cream for more experience owners that are looking for a step up in sound.
It's very well maybe few capacitors/better tubes away from being breathtaking - i've chose to go another way.
Cheers, Gennady
Not much info about it on the net - so i decided to share my experience.
It's chinese made from ~10-15 years ago based on 310A + 300B + 845 tubes.
There is newer model available now with some changes.
The specs say:
- Power output. 24W（Class A Single Ended）
- Frequency response. 15Hz～35kHz（-1.5dB）
The build quality looks pretty good and internal layout is very clean.
Parts quality also looks pretty decent.
It's very heavy - almost 54kg.
Although a good part of it's weight comes from chassis thick steel - the bottom plate alone is 3.4kg.
Comparing to my Viva 300B push pull it's twice the size and twice the weight.
The unit i've got had very basic looking brandless 845s (the only marking on them is "Made in China").
The 310a's duty is served by some plane looking russian made tubes 10Z120.
The 300B's are supposedly fresh Psvane T-Series 300B-T. It's black colored and probably not so fresh as seller tried to present it - since it's out of production for quite some time...
I've tried the amp also with my own Psvane 300B-TII tubes - those are gray colored and priced ~40% more than the black ones.
The amp was used as a power amp only via "pre in" input+selector.
The preamp is ARC Reference 5SE.
The speakers are hotroaded Klipsch La Scalas with JBL tweeter and big REL subwoofer.
Sonically it was very different experience from my 300B push-pull amp.
First time i've heard sounds extend so much beyond speakers' width.
Also depth and layers where at the level i never heard.
Bass was good.
No complaints about high frequencies either - cymbals and strings sounds very good.
Perfect?
No quite.
First of all - it humed.
Playing with 4 hum pots improved the situation but didn't reduce it to the level that i don't hear from my seating position.
Bias was floating - every 30 minutes i was checking it and each time bias was changed. I don't know what it says about the design or the tubes - but IMO it's strange.
With my 300B's it had quite strong hiss. This disturbed me a lot. For me it's really would be a deal braker.
If only i could keep using my Psvane 300B-TII tubes. But i couldn't.
With these tubes the sound was way too blingy - it's very sexy and appealing at first. But after some time it's too much.
Also at complex passages all sounds got mixed up and even got to the level of cacophony.
Going back to the black 300B's made it much better, still a bit blingy.
But the midrange - vocals/brass/horns - became too thin. Trumpets/saxophones sounded very plasticky and not real.
Sure my 104db speakers didn't help to make hum/hiss bearable - still some other DHT amps i've tried were quieter (some noisier).
This is the only one that have hissed.
Having 4 hum trim pots is good IMO as it gives possibility to adjust hum for all tubes individually. However as i said above it wasn't enough to make it silent.
Power output wise in my setup - if to believe to the front mounted VU meter, the amp worked at less that 0.5w most of the time, during loud sections going up to ~2w, and at very very loud moments jumping to ~5w.
Feedback settings are 3db or 6 db - sound difference was at high feedback a sound a bit thicker, at lower setting is more airy with air around sounds.
I listened at low feedback.
In the bottom line - this amp can be a good solution for somebody that starting with tubes in general or single ended amps specifically.
It's not top of the cream for more experience owners that are looking for a step up in sound.
It's very well maybe few capacitors/better tubes away from being breathtaking - i've chose to go another way.
Cheers, Gennady
