I purchased my R8 in Jan. From China-hifi-Audio.com. Today I removed the bottom cover plate to prepair to do the upgrades and mods. Having red plated the V2 power tube several weeks ago I first looked for fried resistors and any other faults to no avail. I did however observe that the power caps were 500 volts not like the 450V that the R8 Stephi was working on had. Also all the resistors appeared to be of better quality with a smoother surface and no visable flaking. So it appears that Someone at Willsenton is listening in on us R8 fans.
top of page
bottom of page
I just purchased an R8 in June 2023 from Amazon. It shipped from China to Mississippi behind the scenes and then domestically shipped to my address via UPS. Cracked the cover off this morning to look at the power supply caps to source a replacement. I found the same thing. 500Volt 330uF 105degC caps.
Some of the resistors in my amp look pretty bad. They look to be different than what was in the videos, but still similar appearence issues. No infamous green resistor.
My amp also has the hum. I have to put my ear up to the speaker to hear it, and it is worse on the pre-amp input like in the videos. But the amp sounds great to me in ultra-linear mode, but this is my first audio tube amp.
Not necessarily. It's well known that they change components based on shortages, what they can get or have on hand. I have been down these rabbit holes with some other Sino brands. Electronics built during the height of China's Covid era and lockdowns are a little suspect to put it mildly.
That's good news!