Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 17, 2013 Posted June 17, 2013 hi there mike here an expat living in china I would like to chat to any one who has a set of the following mingda amp preamp mc2a3 mono blocks mc3008 big mono blocks mc300845ab phono amp mc 2006 the above items I have and would like to chat about the mods people have done and any feed back about mingda in AU thanks mike
TP1 Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 Hi Mike MC -300845-AB. These are simply awesome amps and seem to be able to drive just about anything. I found the sound out of the box to be highly detailed and transparent with amazing imaging and a huge sound stage. Although they do not have the same degree of coloration of many other valve amps, their timbre sets them apart from the pack and this reveals the shortcomings of most SS amps I have compared them to. They can also pack a wallop when called upon to do so and although I have 4 in a bi-amped configuration, 2 will easily do the job. But when your on a good thing...... In terms of mods, I have been contemplating capacitor upgrade in key areas but have had worthwhile gains with different valves. Firstly, swapping 845 valves for Shuguang 845 B made a real improvement, timbre improved even more as did the openness and detail. - Do yours have the Mingda 845 SE valves or the Shuguang 845's? Swapping the standard shuguang 300Bs with TJ Mesh plates improved things further as did using NOS 6SN7's. MC-2A3 I had an Mc 2A3 pre-amp - a stunning performer that I think could benefit from simple cap upgrades . There is also a thread on Audiogon about upgrades to this pre-amp. I have upgraded a MC-300 Pre - mainly capacitors. Worthwhile improvement as is adding Shuguang 300B-Z Black Treasure tubes. The TJ Meshplates sounded better than the solid plates and the Black Treasures are a big step forward again. They also make a 2A3 black Treasure BTW. MC - Phono 2006 I also have one of these sitting in the cupboard. Excellent sound on MM but too noisy on MC to use all the time. I haven't solved that issue yet. Icon Audio based their first couple of Phono's on this one, used transformers for MC step up and a different power supply. 1
TP1 Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 I will also add that I had one problem with one of the monoblocks. The output transformer on one failed after 6 years - tech was not sure what the cause was - but I sent an email to Mingda and received a new one a few days later (potted in a new enclosure) for $120 plus shipping. Mingda also sent a schematic for the tech. In the end it seemed like a painless exercise considering there is no Aussie distributor.
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 18, 2013 Author Posted June 18, 2013 Hi Tasso In the mc 30045ab I replaced the standard tubes with the new Psvane mark 2 as I was at an audio show here in Guangzhou I replaced all tubes and the sound after about 100 hours has really started to sound super great I was going to get the black Treasure and really waited to get the mark 2 as tried to get feedback reports off line anyway there is a company in the USA called grant fiddly and I got some good feedback from them so went for it and so far so good I think I will upgrade the mc 2a3 caps as you said It great to chat to someone who has the same amps as I have because not many people have I was thinking of getting a set of b&w 802D how do you think they may sound driven by the mc 300845ab amp at the moment I have a set of Chinese horns on them that sound great and very detailed I will take some photos soon and upload so you can see my set up Chat soon and thanks for your reply Mike
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 18, 2013 Author Posted June 18, 2013 I forgot to say the factory is not far from here in GZ and over the five years I have been here in china I have been very welcome to go and see what’s new and get some things changed on amps and so on I have found there service to be fanatic and now they have a young lady in the office who can speak English which makes trying to communicate very easy. One upgrade I will get them to do to the mc300845AB is bias pots on the top of each unit for tube spinning as it seems when replacing the 845 the bias need to be adjusted and very hard to do as you need to do from under the unit and its so big and heavy. I should get a reply from them this week on when to drive down and get this done and also some caps replaced i.e. upgraded so nice to work in with them when they’re not so busy and can do this for me. The owner of Ming da is a great guy and always what’s to please which makes it a joy to go down and see them. I haven’t tried the mc 2006 with a mc cartage yet as been using a grado mm gold but have two turntables and been looking for a good mc cartage on eBay to have a play. As you said if there is a noise issue I will get them to look at it as the factory and give you an update on the out come. regards mike 1
davewantsmoore Posted June 18, 2013 Posted June 18, 2013 I forgot to say the factory is not far from here in GZ and over the five years I have been here in china I have been very welcome to go and see what’s new and get some things changed on amps and so on Luck you! :-D
TP1 Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) I forgot to say the factory is not far from here in GZ and over the five years I have been here in china I have been very welcome to go and see what’s new and get some things changed on amps and so on I have found there service to be fanatic and now they have a young lady in the office who can speak English which makes trying to communicate very easy. One upgrade I will get them to do to the mc300845AB is bias pots on the top of each unit for tube spinning as it seems when replacing the 845 the bias need to be adjusted and very hard to do as you need to do from under the unit and its so big and heavy. I should get a reply from them this week on when to drive down and get this done and also some caps replaced i.e. upgraded so nice to work in with them when they’re not so busy and can do this for me. The owner of Ming da is a great guy and always what’s to please which makes it a joy to go down and see them. I haven’t tried the mc 2006 with a mc cartage yet as been using a grado mm gold but have two turntables and been looking for a good mc cartage on eBay to have a play. As you said if there is a noise issue I will get them to look at it as the factory and give you an update on the out come. regards mike How cool is that! I take it the young lady at the Mei-xing / Ming da factory is Sophia? I have been dealing through her and the service has been excellent. I would be very interested to know what component upgrades work on the MC-300845 Monoblocks and if you could let us know that would be greatly appreciated. Also could you find out if there are any plans to bring out a higher power, high current power amp? At the moment the choices for high powered tube amps from decent Chinese manufacturers appear limited to The Jolida 200 WPC Musical Envoys and the Doge 9 equivalent, both being from the Shenda Corporation. Have you heard any of those? Finally you can't just tease us like this and not expect further questions! If you have any photos from the Ghuanzhou show we would love to see them, if not, maybe next time. I have been to the HK HI fi show a couple of times but hardly any Chinese made gear was displayed there. I assume all the good Chinese stuff is displayed at Ghanzhou? Edited June 19, 2013 by Tasso
Bronal Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Do you have to import these amps directly from Ming Da? What are freight charges like? Does anyone know how they would compare to the Consonance 845S monoblocks? (Apart from being more powerful.) Edited June 19, 2013 by bronal
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 How cool is that! I take it the young lady at the Mei-xing / Ming da factory is Sophia? I have been dealing through her and the service has been excellent. I would be very interested to know what component upgrades work on the MC-300845 Monoblocks and if you could let us know that would be greatly appreciated. Also could you find out if there are any plans to bring out a higher power, high current power amp? At the moment the choices for high powered tube amps from decent Chinese manufacturers appear limited to The Jolida 200 WPC Musical Envoys and the Doge 9 equivalent, both being from the Shenda Corporation. Have you heard any of those? Finally you can't just tease us like this and not expect further questions! If you have any photos from the Ghuanzhou show we would love to see them, if not, maybe next time. I have been to the HK HI fi show a couple of times but hardly any Chinese made gear was displayed there. I assume all the good Chinese stuff is displayed at Ghanzhou? Hi Tasso been mad busy here and will reply and post some photos of the show on the week end i have posted a photo of my set up with the ming da mc 300845AB in place at home i also made the rack for my audio gear my self last year to put the growing family of audio gear that i can stop getting hahahahah
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 Do you have to import these amps directly from Ming Da? What are freight charges like? Does anyone know how they would compare to the Consonance 845S monoblocks? (Apart from being more powerful.) Hi Bronal thank you saying hi you can order from the factory dont order from on line places as there are a lot of mingda copys out here in china as it is the land of the copy items in regards to the consonance gear i went to shanghai were they are based and looked at all there gear all i can say is wow is nice stuff and one of the top in audio coming out of china.in regards to the monoblocks you are asking about if i recall the 845s set up is 28watt and the 211 is 16watt well some were around that in regards to sound the 845s was sweet with the preamp set up they had there but i went for mingda mc 300845AB over them just because the sound for my ear was much better and could drive my speaker set up to a new leave in feeling and sound and the bass was great but the mids is were it kills the cosonance 845s monoblocks in my opinion i am using a chinese made floor standing speaker from sheng ya v-518 which is really out standing from a price point and a big bang for the money i have attched a photo of the speaker as well. i hope this is a help and if you would like any more Q&A im more than happy to help. warm regards Mike
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 Nice rack! cheers mate i will post more detailed photos and plans i how i made it in the future thanks mike
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 How cool is that! I take it the young lady at the Mei-xing / Ming da factory is Sophia? I have been dealing through her and the service has been excellent. I would be very interested to know what component upgrades work on the MC-300845 Monoblocks and if you could let us know that would be greatly appreciated. Also could you find out if there are any plans to bring out a higher power, high current power amp? At the moment the choices for high powered tube amps from decent Chinese manufacturers appear limited to The Jolida 200 WPC Musical Envoys and the Doge 9 equivalent, both being from the Shenda Corporation. Have you heard any of those? Finally you can't just tease us like this and not expect further questions! If you have any photos from the Ghuanzhou show we would love to see them, if not, maybe next time. I have been to the HK HI fi show a couple of times but hardly any Chinese made gear was displayed there. I assume all the good Chinese stuff is displayed at Ghanzhou? Hi Tasso I have just been talking to Ming da on the phone today about if they are going to be bringing out a higher powered mono block than the Mc 300845AB and the answer is year!!!! and it is in the design stage now with one being used it will be lurched at the GZ audio show in December and it will be using two 212 tubes and will output 150 watt in class A So will post photos and keep you in the loop once I get to see it I hope when I go down to Ming da next week I will be able to see the prototype and hear what it’s like and snap some shots Cheers Mike
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 (edited) Do you have to import these amps directly from Ming Da? What are freight charges like? Does anyone know how they would compare to the Consonance 845S monoblocks? (Apart from being more powerful.) The website "Mingda-direct.com" is actually owned by Grant Fidelity in Canada. Prices are quite a bit higher ( $5K vs $2.3K for the MC-300 Pre) than buying direct from the factory. To buy direct from ming da you need to go to their website www.mei-xing.com and send an email to Sophia for a quote. For a rough idea of pricing including delivery, you can go to the Cattylink site and start the order process where the handling and shipping charges are added ( no personal information required to get a quote). Because there is no distributor in Australia, Ming da will sell to us direct. Their prices might be a bit above the Cattylink advertised prices but I bought from the factory when I bought a MC-300 Pre because i wanted the updated circuit. ( Hi Fi world in UK gave it a very good review but pointed out a slight deviation in Frequency response. The preamp was updated as a result of the review). You can also ask them to fit different tubes and components. For example I heard today they charge only $150 extra for Shuguang Black Treasure 300B/z ( Otherwise $450 to buy on top of the existing tubes. ) However, I would still consider using Cattylink if the price difference was big enough for the identical item. Edit: I think the Grant Fidelity site, Mingda-direct, includes shipping in the prices although the method is not specified. Edited June 20, 2013 by Tasso
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 How cool is that! I take it the young lady at the Mei-xing / Ming da factory is Sophia? I have been dealing through her and the service has been excellent. I would be very interested to know what component upgrades work on the MC-300845 Monoblocks and if you could let us know that would be greatly appreciated. Also could you find out if there are any plans to bring out a higher power, high current power amp? At the moment the choices for high powered tube amps from decent Chinese manufacturers appear limited to The Jolida 200 WPC Musical Envoys and the Doge 9 equivalent, both being from the Shenda Corporation. Have you heard any of those? Finally you can't just tease us like this and not expect further questions! If you have any photos from the Ghuanzhou show we would love to see them, if not, maybe next time. I have been to the HK HI fi show a couple of times but hardly any Chinese made gear was displayed there. I assume all the good Chinese stuff is displayed at Ghanzhou? Hi Tasso I have just been talking to Ming da on the phone today about if they are going to be bringing out a higher powered mono block than the Mc 300845AB and the answer is year!!!! and it is in the design stage now with one being used it will be lurched at the GZ audio show in December and it will be using two 212 tubes and will output 150 watt in class A So will post photos and keep you in the loop once I get to see it I hope when I go down to Ming da next week I will be able to see the prototype and hear what it’s like and snap some shots Cheers Mike Excellent stuff! Looking forward to your update! 1
Tony M Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 There's However, I would still consider using Cattylink if the price difference was big enough for the identical item. A couple of reservations here. Firstly, Meixing, who make Ming Da advise fakes are rife and deny ever supplying amplifiers to Cattylink. Prima facie, this suggests Cattylink are supplying fake Ming Da amps. However, I can't begin to guess how true or not this is. Secondly, Meixing do not have credit card or Paypal. I bought my MC34ab via direct transfer into the owner's Hong Kong bank account and it all went smoothly. I just can't bring myself to do the same thing with the substantially higher cost of the big monoblocks. BTW, the charming lady who represents Meixing to English-speaking clients is Suena, not Sophia.
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 There's A couple of reservations here. Firstly, Meixing, who make Ming Da advise fakes are rife and deny ever supplying amplifiers to Cattylink. Prima facie, this suggests Cattylink are supplying fake Ming Da amps. However, I can't begin to guess how true or not this is. Secondly, Meixing do not have credit card or Paypal. I bought my MC34ab via direct transfer into the owner's Hong Kong bank account and it all went smoothly. I just can't bring myself to do the same thing with the substantially higher cost of the big monoblocks. BTW, the charming lady who represents Meixing to English-speaking clients is Suena, not Sophia. I thought I would clear up what is usually meant by "fake" etc in the context of "fake equipment". Chinese manufacturers often use that term as a means of identifying unauthorised distributors and gray market gear. It does not in this case refer to a counterfeit, reverse engineered product. I don't know if something gets lost in the translation or it is designed to shock people or both. But lets face it, who in their right mind will ( or could) build a counterfeit Chinese amplifier and sell it for less than the factory who already has the worlds lowest cost of production?
alcarp Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 That's strange. I've been communicating via email and Skype with a lady who calls herself Sophia. What gives? Are there two of them or is this the same person?
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 That's strange. I've been communicating via email and Skype with a lady who calls herself Sophia. What gives? Are there two of them or is this the same person? It is in fact Sophia - "Sophia Yang" as listed by Mingda. I think Suena must have been there previously.
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 Hi guys the owners wife is Sophia and the sales rep who has been there for about two years is Sienna they both speak English. hope that clears that up. also I said there are fakes around and there is as mingda in its past will sale OME for cases with out any workings inside i.e. icon audio UK is an Example which also has a factory located in china now not far from mingda factory I will post some photos in the coming days also what Tasso is saying it right as well !!!! don't for get im here in china and have a lot to do with mingda and have this information first hand from the owner. I do agree that not having PayPal or taking visa is limiting his business opportunities but in china a lot of businesses do this its very common practice. unfortunately there is not a distributor in AU. Next time im down there which will be in a week or two I will chat to the owner about it but I think one off orders a not a big deal to them as they sell a much higher amounts to distributors anyway if any audiophile needs any help let me know. thanks Michael
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 The website "Mingda-direct.com" is actually owned by Grant Fidelity in Canada. Prices are quite a bit higher ( $5K vs $2.3K for the MC-300 Pre) than buying direct from the factory. To buy direct from ming da you need to go to their website www.mei-xing.com and send an email to Sophia for a quote. For a rough idea of pricing including delivery, you can go to the Cattylink site and start the order process where the handling and shipping charges are added ( no personal information required to get a quote). Because there is no distributor in Australia, Ming da will sell to us direct. Their prices might be a bit above the Cattylink advertised prices but I bought from the factory when I bought a MC-300 Pre because i wanted the updated circuit. ( Hi Fi world in UK gave it a very good review but pointed out a slight deviation in Frequency response. The preamp was updated as a result of the review). You can also ask them to fit different tubes and components. For example I heard today they charge only $150 extra for Shuguang Black Treasure 300B/z ( Otherwise $450 to buy on top of the existing tubes. ) However, I would still consider using Cattylink if the price difference was big enough for the identical item. Edit: I think the Grant Fidelity site, Mingda-direct, includes shipping in the prices although the method is not specified. I saw this on another part of the site Tasso so thought I would answer it as well as you talk about other audio items here Hi Mike I assume you mean you have the MC-300-845? I have done a few upgrades to the MC-300 Pre - It has a large roomy chassis with beautifully laid out wiring so it is an ideal candidate. I am contemplating a couple of mods to the power amps but they are pretty awesome as is. I will PM you about this and other Ming da stuff ( lest we take this thread too far off topic). But in the meantime have you come across any amps made by Line Magnetic or some of the better Class A SS amps such as the Shengya PSM-600? Edit: I just saw your other thread on Mingda gear so will post there. Hi Tasso I did try out a set of the Shengya PSM-600 amps with the matching preamp wow they are very nice also the PSM-300 is half the power but well put together both have a great sound and the factory is about 40mins away from here so I went there to look at pear of speakers and loved the PSM-600 set up !!!!! Big big sound they were set up on a set of b&w 801N WOW I thought to myself at the time it would blow the windows out of my small flat hahahahah I think I well get a set in time before I head home as I really liked them but there around 68000rmb which is about 10 to 11k it very hard to go to some of the factory’s and not walk out with a lot of gear and a very light pocket so I went with the Ming da as I had a set of the MC 3008 mono block and love them and also the way they sound and the very friendly service you get when you deal with them at the Mingda factory but really I want both the Shengya PSM-600 and the mingda Mc 30045AB and I know I’ll see myself down at the Shengya factory again and will get a set But god they are very heavy units. In my option I love the mingda gear and shengya gear as both are some of the best gear coming out of china today and the great thing here there is always something new to keep the mouth wet I have found. My next mission is to tack the mingda mono blocks in to the local b&w dealer and I have always had a thing for the 800N and 802N which are the old models so will try them out and see how it all goes as all I have read on the net says tube amps will not do well to drive those baby’s and I have always want a set so we will see but I feel very confident they will run the 802 well hahahhaha I hope of I maybe going to shengya mono blocks sometime this year Once I get them there and see will post photos and try take a video as well Regards Michael
Tony M Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 (edited) the owners wife is Sophia and the sales rep who has been there for about two years is Sienna they both speak English. hope that clears that up. I do agree that not having PayPal or taking visa is limiting his business opportunities but in china a lot of businesses do this its very common practice. unfortunately there is not a distributor in AU. Next time im down there which will be in a week or two I will chat to the owner about it but I think one off orders a not a big deal to them as they sell a much higher amounts to distributors anyway if any audiophile needs any help let me know. Yes, please do, Michael, as I believe they would sell a lot more amps with a more user-friendly and safer-feeling payment policy. Suena (which IS how she spells her name in English) has also said she will bring it up with the owner again as this has been something I have discussed with her extensively via email over at least the past 12 months. FWIW, re the "fake" bit, Suena told me in an email that the new CNC'd aluminium cases were developed as the older-style sheet steel cases were too easy to fake. However, as Tasso has said, it's really hard to imagine the amps being counterfeited from scratch. I was aware of the "Icon Audio" situation after chatting to the Decibel Hifi rep at the recent audio show. It would be great to have an independent comparison of the big Ming Da monoblocks vs the Icon Audio ones. Edited June 20, 2013 by Tony M
Michael Lawry Grimmer Posted June 20, 2013 Author Posted June 20, 2013 Mingda MC 300845AB with new Psvane mark 2 I have the big power tubes to do next but have them but set up will let mingda do
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 (edited) This is a copy from an email received recently. Suena must be the phonetic spelling of her Chinese name . Best regard Sophia Sophia LiZhuHai QiAo Meixing Electronic factory .Tel:+86-756-3315656 Mobile:+86 15018325807 Fax:+86-756-3317676MSN: liyanzhen55@live.cn Skype:lyzlsz55Email: sales@mei-xing.com Web: www.mei-xing.com Edited June 20, 2013 by Tasso
TP1 Posted June 20, 2013 Posted June 20, 2013 (edited) Hi Tasso I did try out a set of the Shengya PSM-600 amps with the matching preamp wow they are very nice also the PSM-300 is half the power but well put together both have a great sound and the factory is about 40mins away from here so I went there to look at pear of speakers and loved the PSM-600 set up !!!!! Big big sound they were set up on a set of b&w 801N WOW I thought to myself at the time it would blow the windows out of my small flat hahahahah Hi Mike, In an review of the Shengya PSM-600 ( Dagogo) it was preferred over the Plinius SA Reference amplifiers so it must be something special. Apart from the price, I hesitate about the weight - 80 kg for each mono block, and power requirements - each amp has 3000VA transformer ( 6000VA total). They output 600 watts per channel into 8 Ohms ( class A/B) and 1200 Watts into 4 OHMs and 2400 Watts per channel into 2 Ohms. In pure Class A mode they output 150 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms and 300 Into 4 Ohms and 600 Watts into 2 OHMs. Ordinary household circuits will not cut it with these amps. The PSM-300 seem better value in that you can get 2 sets for less than the price of the PSM-600. They still output 300/600/1200 watts in class A/B and 100/200/400 in pure Class A. They seem like a reasonable way to get into decent Pure Class A amps. Edited June 20, 2013 by Tasso
Recommended Posts