X7 KT88 x4 Push-Pull Vacuum Tube Integrated Amp Power Amplifier MM Phono amp Remote Upgrade

I’ve had the X7 for over a month now, and it has been an extremely enjoyable purchase. I’ve had tube components before, but never an integrated tube amp or tube amplifier. But I’ve very much enjoyed the tube preamps I’ve tried and the tube phono preamps that have been in my system. Buying the X7 was a leap of faith on my part. I’ve always wanted a McIntosh tube integrated, or maybe a Rogue Audio tube integrated, but the high costs of either have always held me up. In addition, I was concerned about the drop in power ratings when moving to a tube amp. I have a pair of MartinLogan Motion XT 100 towers that like a little power to sound their best, and have been using a 150 watt per channel Rotel integrated to push them. But I haven’t been pleased with the sound quality I’m getting through the Rotel so wanted to make a change. Enter the X7. Four KT88 tubes = 25 watts per channel in triode mode and 45 watts per channel in ultra linear mode. Point to point wiring inside the case. Two 12au7 tubes and one 12ax7 tube, and the X7 uses a rectifier tube, which not all tube amps have. I ran the X7 with the included Muzishare tubes for a couple of weeks, and then started rolling tubes. I purchased a Mullard rectifier tube, a Gold Lion gold pin 12ax7, and then tried a series of 12au7 tubes before ending up with a couple of new release mullards. I swapped out the KT88s with PS Vane Horizon series tubes, but didn’t like them. I bit the bullet and bought a set of Gold Lion KT88s and that is where I stopped. I couldn’t imagine the X7 sounding much better than it does now. Much better than the solid state electronics that were running the MartinLogans prior. I use the 4 ohm taps for the MartinLogans and run it in triode mode the majority of the time. This gives a smooth, slightly rolled off treble and plenty of low bass definition. When I really want to turn the volume up, I switch the X7 to ultralinear mode and enjoy a sparkling treble and increased volume. With the right set of tubes, the X7 performs amazingly. The stock tubes were good, but the combination of Mullards and Gold Lions is a revelation. The KT88 upgrades were 300 dollars. The Mullard rectifier tube was 60 bucks. The Gold Lion 12ax7 was 55 dollars, and the pair of Mullard 12au7s was 55 dollars. Adding all that up, from X7 to upgrade end game cost me less than 2000 dollars. Less than 2000, and it sounds better than the 3500 dollar solid state integrated it replaced. 2,000 dollars is a lot less than the cost of a nice Rogue Audio, Luxman, or McIntosh tube integrated. One heck of a value here! Couple additional items. The X7 has a balanced input. That’s what I run my Cyrus Signature phono amp into. The built in phono pre of the X7 is pretty average to be honest. I wouldn’t plan on using it for critical listening. The VU meters look amazing. It is beautifully built. Sounds great.

My first experience with a tube amp other than small headphone amps. My main system uses a Bryson 4bsst amp pushing large Mirage OM5 speakers with active bass drivers, and also a Paradigm sub, so quite a change, but this will be a secondary system for me. The Muzishare would be challenged driving the OM5s, so I purchased both a set of Klipsch rp 600m’s and also Triangle Borea br03’s to pair with the X7.... both highly sensitive and with their own sonic signature, and both emphasized top end, especially the Klipsch, so great match for tubes. I swap in and out depending on my musical flavour of the day. Both speakers hooked up wonderfully with the X7 and serving as great introduction to tubes other than headphones. The X7 sounded great out of the box and after a week of heavy listening has truly come into its own. This amp drives both the smaller sensitive speakers to more than enough sound pressure levels without running out of breath...lots of headroom, and demonstrates sweet treble and mids with lots of bass power that is quite defined when in ultra linear mode. Imaging is very good as is the soundstage, which was extra wide in triode mode that I use late evenings and provides more of a tube sweetness and warmth that is evident with piano and string instruments, and vocals. The amp is very heavy (almost as much as my large Bryson) and quality construction with a solid feel to the volume and selector knobs and also toggle switches....very good quality binding posts. A really attractive piece of gear as well and has to be seen in person to fully appreciate. I enjoy the glow of the tubes and VU meters in a dark room. I am using vinyl, CD, reel to reel tape and streaming for sources and sounds great with all. The phono stage is very good as well, and also with drives my most demanding headphones with ease. I am very pleased with this amp and considering this my introduction to tubes, a very good value....truly great value for the performance and build quality. I recommend.

Excellent. Well packaged and arrived in pristine condition. Currently around 8hrs on unit. Was a bit dull and scratchy at first, but after a couple hours of run time it improved greatly and bass slowly picking up, but sound output is quite neutral overall which I like. Only thing I noticed was the v1 output while checking the bias seems to wander a bit, although getting more stable with run time. I thought the power tubes might be mismatched by looking at the clock position of the bias pots. However, after swapping the power tubes around for a possible better match for each channel the clock position was the same as original after readjustingthe bias. So I believe they were well matched as the unit came. Very nice amplifier and would recommend to anyone.

I Always dreamed of a Tube amp with Two VU Meters, ever since I was a kid. I saw the reviews (and an especially helpful video review on YouTube), and I was convinced to buy the Muzishare X-7. I paired with Polk Audio i200 bookshelf speakers and a Polk Audio 10" powered subwoofer. (These bookshelf speakers are not tiny--they don't fit upright on any bookshelf). The amp powers the i200s just fine. Sound is excellent in both Ultralinear mode (45 watts per channel) and Triode mode. I personally prefer the Triode Mode at a higher volume (which I'm told is 25 watts per channel and has rolls off the treble a tiny bit). The bass response without the subwoofer is excellent. (I add just a tad of subwoofer as a personal preference). I have never exceeded the 12 o'clock position on the volume. At 12, the amp is overpowering in a good way. There's still a lot of power left. My personal tastes aren't loud volumes, just note that there's plenty of power for efficient speakers. Highly likely, you'll have plenty of power for larger drivers that are in tower speakers, especially in Ultralinear mode. I haven't opened up the case (like the reviewer did on YouTube), but the exterior is solid quality everything! The reviewer showed quality point to point wiring with quality soldering on the inside. I have nothing negative to say about this amp. I've had it use for about 3 hours per day. Theoretically, the sound will get better as my speakers get broken in. Apparently, tubes also get a little better performance with use. (Note, they'll degrade after time, but that's probably 5-7 years away, and will need to be replaced. But, that's a known fact about vacuum tubes). My amp is the focal point of my living room. I love the look in the light. In the dark, the glowing tubes and twin VU meters are just art! Again, since the early-80s, I've dreamed of a tube amp. $1300 is a lot of money, but an incredible value for what you get, considering what boutique tube amps cost. Don't let the "Made in China" scare you on the quality. It is excellent. The biggest negative that the YouTube reviewer had was servicing (because it comes from China). I disagree. Since it's basically 1950's era technology (that is, it runs on vacuum tubes), I would argue that service should be easy to find no matter where you live. By no means am I criticizing the 1950s era technology, I just mean to say that it's relative simple compared to the most modern solid state amps.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at and reading about Chinese tube amps after giving up on trying to find a good used vintage one for fear of what lurks in 50+ year old circuitry and realizing that modern materials/components are much better than they were in the 1950s-1970s anyways so unless I spent alot of money on an old one that has been completely rebuilt with modern components then it really wasn't worth it for any reason other than nastalgia. I like nastalgia and all but I am a practical man so I decided to get something new without spending more than $800. While shoppinhg around I quickly realized that my price cap was unrealistic for the feature set that I needed. It had to be: Class A-B with an ultra linear/triode switch and a phono preamp stage and of course power output, distortion, signal to noise ratio etc. were also being taken into consideration and of course it had to have at least one analogue meter. The remote wasn't a requirement but it is quite the luxury on an amp such as this, I would not have gotten a remote had I bought that Citation II I was eying on Ebay. After a lot of searching I found the X7, it looks great with a retro sort of style as if it were made for people like me who are craving whatever it was in the sound and presense of the amps we experienced when we were younger. The experience of hearing the sound, feeling the warmth eminating from the cage and witnessing the equally warm orange glow of the tubes and of course the glowing dancing meters. The experience was enhanced by me only being 3 ft tall at the time so the glorious tube amp was almost at eye level so could feel the warmth on my face and not only on my hands. End tangent. The bottom line is the X7 was the least expensive one that met all of my requirements and much to my delight it looks fantastic as well. Upon reception I was immediately impressed by the quality feel of the amp. The feel of the weight of sturdy metals. The knobs feel nice to turn, there is a good amount of resistance which give them a quality feel. And of course, it was very well, no, it was meticulously packaged as something like this should be. The sound at first was good but a little raspy on the high end, after the 100 hour burn in period I couldn't stop smiling at the sound. It wasn't what I would consider perfect but it was very good, good enough to put a grin on my face. Plenty of power for my JBL Es90 s, sounds really good. I didn't like the port noise at the low end of the es90 s though so I added a powered sub. I didn't want to lose that elusive and magical tube sound on the low end so I bought a speaker to line level adapter from Crutchfield so the SA-1000 class ab amp powering the sub is amplifying the wave form being output by the tube amp and not the signal before it is passed throuth the tube preamp and amp stages. I think this is a good compromise and now the system is very loud if I want it to be but volume isn't the point of an amp like the X7, I wan't quality, I've had plenty of quantity. I didn't like the sound of my klipsch 3.2 s with this amp although they were very loud all by themselves since they have an spl of 94. My JBL studio 190 s sounded the best and there was no port noise to worry about but with an spl/sensitivy rating of 90 I had to turn the volume knob up almost all the way to get it to be what I consider to be enjoyably loud when I want to crank it up a little bit. No bleeding ears or anything like that, lol. The phono input sounds ok but not as good as I hoped and not as good as my 1992 Onky preamp. I am hoping that some future tube upgrades will resolve the issue. The upside though is that the preamp sounds excellent hooked up to the SB AE-9 in my PC. In fact, my 24 bit vinyl rips sound so good now on the X7 with no equalization whatsoever, (I can control the low end with the sub levels) that I wonder if I even need to play my records anymore. I still will though either way. The headphone output does not sound very good on my AKG K7xx headphones, I'm not sure if it is an impadance issue or what but the sound is very flat and needs heavy equalization for me to get any kind of good sound out of it. The headphone output and the less than excellent phono stage are the reasons why I only gave 4 stars but for the $1500 I spent on the X7 I don't think I could have gotten anything better and now I have a good excuse to get me a nice vincent phono preamp if I so desire. I needed an HDMI switcher for my set up. If you need one too I recomend this one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0865Q2MTG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details I recently hooked up my vintage Onky preamp and EQ to use in the phono stage and it is sounds much better, even with the new tubes.