Yulong AMP4780 Integrated Amp Review

Posted by the dood on Friday, September 26th, 2008

The Yulong AMP4780, another one of China’s exports that claims to provide Hi-Fi enthusiasts with an affordable and compact solution for high quality audio playback. I purchased the Yulong to replace my Creek 4330SE, which is a wonderful sounding peice of kit. The Yulong retails at a much lower price, and can be purchased new (including shipping) for about 1/2 of the price of the a used Creek 4330SE.

Check out the little guy here:

Depending on who you ask, this amp puts out between 40 and 60 WRMS. The place I bought it from claimed 40WRMS/channel. This is enough to power most bookshelf speakers, especially in a smaller room, and more than enough to power high-efficiency speakers in the 92db+ range. Currently I have it powering a pair of Jungson Beauty Deity BD-1 speakers, which are rated at 85db sensitive in a 250sq ft room.

Impressions
The amp seems adequate for it’s duties in my den, powering the sound from my computer. Oddly, though it is claimed to have tube-like sound and warmth, I felt that this amp does not really have those characteristics, but rather something unique. It does have the midrange bloom that we associate with tubes, however it lacks the warmth, instead having a somewhat more clinical sound, with emphasis in the midrange, with slightly less bass than most solid state.

The top end is clear, and detailed, as is the midrange. I find it very musical and have it playing while I write this review. The size is fantastic, and the large toroidal power supply makes it a nice hefty unit that feels very solid. It was strange that my unit did not come with instructions, though not really necessary, considering that it only has 1 set of inputs and a power switch and volume control.

The bass extends low, but has less emphasis than the Creek and Jungson amps that I had used with these speakers before. It may be that the amp does not have enough current to drive these somewhat inefficient monitors. I tried hooking up a pair of Aurum Cantus Leisure 2 SE’s speakers to the amp, which have a rated sensitivity of 86db, with similar results. I was a bit shocked that at the amp did not have that visceral bass. As a last resort, I pulled my Klipsch RB-5 MKII’s from my home theatre set up and plugged them in. The Klipsch are rated at 96db and are incredibly efficient, however, because of fairly large impedence swings down to 4ohms they don’t sound great with a lot of lower end tube gear.

The Magic Begins
Hooked up to the Klipsch RB-5 MKII’s, this amp sang like I would not believe. The Klipsch RB-5 MKII is one of the most underrated speakers I have owned, and much better than the current Klipsch Reference speakers with the plastic baffles. Similar to the T-Amps, this Yulong has that magical sound that I remember, but with a more robust case and power supply, for a lot less money that one would expect. Heck you can’t even buy all the parts to build this amp for the money.

With the Klipsch speakers, the Yulong has a warm, musical midrange, and that tube sound seems to be there while it was lacking with the other two speakers I had tried. The Jungson and Aurum Cantus speakers are amazing, and I love them with medium to high powered solid state gear such as the Creek 4330SE, but with the Yulong they just did not pair up.

I do highly recommend this amp if you are on a tight budget, and have some relatively high efficiency speakers to spare. I think that is the key to getting good results with it.

9 Responses to “Yulong AMP4780 Integrated Amp Review”

  1. Hello I’m looking for a budget amp to drive my cyrus quattro and a pair of Mission 780s. I can’t afford the smartpower. Do you think the Yulong would suffice? Many thanks.

  2. The Missions are more sensitive than my Jungsons, but I’m not sure how current hungry they are… so you might or might not have luck using this amp. Find the impedence curve for your MIssions and see if they dip down to 4ohms or lower much… if they don’t and stay around 6-8ohms or higher you should be fine.

  3. I just received the Yulong AMP One, and am spending much time breaking it in. It outputs to my Yamaha NS-AP7800 front speakers, (these were part of a 5.1 set, but the tall and slim front speakers are the only ones I use and they sound fantastic). These speakers aren’t especially efficient, and I don’t know what impedance they are. But the volume from the amp at 12:00 setting doesn’t yield much output above conversation levels in my 15×25 foot greatroom. But having said that, the resulting sound quality I am hearing so far guarantees that my current setup I’m falling in love with. This sound quality from this system is so agile and engaging.
    I am a Linn-o-phile from way back, and going from any all Linn component setup (Karik 3 CD player, Numerik DAC, 2 LK-100 amps) bi-wired pair of Totem Arro speakers, to now getting a quality of music at a fraction of the cost of my Linn & Totem setup with the Yulong AMP One, Onix XCD-88 CD player and Yamaha HT speakers, I can live with this setup for a long, long time, despite the rather limited SPLs’ I’m getting.

    Dan

  4. That seems like you are definately underpowered then.. as I can listen to music above conversation level at 9-10 o’clock, and my Jungsons are not very efficient. But this is also in my 13×13 Den.

  5. Where can i buy this amp??
    I live in Belgium (Europe) so we have 230V.
    I’m sure i won’t find it in the shops but where can i order one?

  6. I purchased mine from an eBay seller.

  7. So is the “Ampone” the same but newer version of the amp4780??

    I found a cheap model on Ebay here but i’m not sure what he means with updated version of this unit.

    http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/NEW-YULONG-audio-AMPONE-Amplifier-update-version_W0QQitemZ140317353250QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Amplifiers?
    hash=item140317353250&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

    But these units except 100 to 240V input right?

  8. You have to request the voltage that you need… at least I did.

  9. Yes i asked and it works up to 240V.
    About the update version, he or she said it was just a new version.
    I saw this amp in France far sale on Ebay for 200 euro!!
    I paid only 1/3 of this asking price, postage is a little more from hong kong but still cheap.

    On the pics on Ebay i see this amp connected to Dynaudio speakers.
    I heard Dynaudio and i really like the sound compared to most speakers.
    The Dynaudio’s are are only 86 or 87db sensitive but they are only 4ohm speakers.
    I don’t know if this amp will drive the Dynaudio’s as good as the Klipsch speakers.
    But i would like to test both of these speakers on this amp once i get it.

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