ELEGIANT Bluetooth Power Amplifier HY-V9B/V10: A Dissection

Hello, I'm Munou.

In the past, I repaired and used a SANSUI amplifier, and enjoyed music with a setup of Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro and Fiio X1, which would probably evoke a sense of nostalgia for audio geeks from 2010 onwards.
But then I realized.

"Even if you have a good audio setup, isn't it useless if you don't output power?"

I thought. Of course, I also considered getting into tube amplifiers, but I figured it's enough to just enjoy music at stores that have tube amplifiers. You learn more things by going outside, after all.
So, I started preparing an all-rounder that could play music reasonably well and via Bluetooth, as cheaply as possible. That was me back then.

So, I decided to maintain a Chinese amplifier I bought a long time ago, for the first time in a while.

I just love this distinctly Chinese feel.

Why is the model number V10 but the title is V9B? You'll understand if you read on.

The left is an RCA terminal, primarily for connecting devices like record players.

The center is for connecting terminal-less speakers, which are apparently also called push-terminal blocks.

The USB port seems to be for power supply as well, which is a nice multi-functional touch with that distinct Chinese feel.

The right is for power supply, and actually, any versatile cable will do as long as it provides enough power.

It's very simple, isn't it?
In the past, I thought about replacing all the capacitors, but I stopped when I realized that just getting good capacitors for a cheap amplifier would cost close to or even more than the unit itself...

I slyly replaced the op-amp and made it socketed.
I have a few prepared, but the one I've been using is the Burr-Brown OPA2134.
When I looked it up again, I found that it was advertised as **"industry's highest performance"**.

And have you noticed?

Oh, the casing...

Oh, youuuuuu!!!!!!!!!

So, even though I'm saying this, it's not surprising at all, as this kind of parts reuse is common not just among Chinese manufacturers but also among US manufacturers in other genres.
Or rather, there's no information about V9B itself, so I imagine that only the board was printed that way, and when it came to selling it, they thought, "V10 sounds better!"

I cleaned the knob parts with contact cleaner and cotton swabs, and that's it.
I'm satisfied because it now consistently produces good sound.

And I can almost hear people asking, "Why not the famous Lepy among Chinese amplifiers?" But back then, there were many fakes circulating, and information about internal changes was conflicting, plus it didn't support Bluetooth, so I thought there was no need to specifically buy it and chose this one instead.

The other day, I went to a cafe in Sendai called VON, and they were using a Lepy amplifier, which made me feel the strong evangelizing power of Chinese amplifiers.

See you again.