Galion TS34 Tube Integrated Amplifier (The successor to the TS120 standard edition)

This TS34 is my second amplifier from Galion Audio. I already have a TS A75 to power my KEF R3 speakers and it fully lives up to its specifications and marketing promises. I commend Thomas Tan for the incredible effort he puts into voicing his products and providing value for money. I find it amazing that he takes the time and effort to communicate with his customers directly, including personally responding to emails on evenings and weekends.

Summary/Conclusion: This TS34 amplifier is a “keeper”. It sounds incredible. It looks and feels great. It’ll probably last longer than I will. I love the fact it allows for both EL34 and KT88 tubes to scratch that tube rolling itch. I like that it has tone controls, even as subtle as they are they give me options to adjust for different types of recordings. I love the fact that it has dual (stereo) full-range subwoofer outputs. That was one of my reasons for buying it. It’s kinda funny though that the amount of bass the amp provides negates the need for subwoofers under most listening conditions. Oh well, again better to have the option and not need it than the other way around.

While the following are my own personal observations putting the TS34 through its paces, pretty much all of it is actually covered in the user manual, therefore most of these comments are about documented features or characteristics of the amplifier. I recommend reading the user manual carefully as it actually has very useful information.

Break-in/Burn-in: According to the user manual, full break-in will take 300 hours. When I started listening to the new TS34 amp it sounded a bit harsh but I noticed a distinct improvement in sound quality after 6-8 hours. After a few days of playing music for 10+ hours/day I can already say that this is the best sounding amp in my collection of 10+ amps, including several solid state Class A/AB Amps, a Class D GaN-FET Amp, and several Tube Amps (300B, 6550, EL34, 6CA7). The TS34 bests them all!

Power: The TS34 is more powerful than the 25W specification suggests. With 87dB sensitive speakers (Cabasse Murano, KEF R3), turning up the volume to ~15% is already pretty loud. Volume at 50% gives me a steady >90dB SPL with peaks at 105dB in my room. My neighbors’ neighbors can hear me! With 103dB sensitive speakers (LiiSong Platinum-10), ~10% volume level is LOUD. I haven’t noticed any distortion or clipping, even at loud volumes.
Tone: This really depends on the settings. There are lots of options to play with the sound and change tonal character. Overall it’s warm-ish, but with lots of clarity. It has a surprising amount of bass for an EL34 amplifier. I turned off my subwoofers and put foam plugs in the bass ports of my speakers and there’s still plenty of bass. Obviously there is the option to turn bass down (or up) on the tone controls if the source material requires adjustment. Treble and Mids are awesome! I can hear every little detail and voices are amazing. The highs are smooth and well-controlled and not fatiguing.

Soundstage: I have several other tube amplifiers and the TS34 has the widest and most holographic soundstage of them all. Listening to any solid state amp after listening to the TS34 (even the TS A75) is a bit shocking, as you’ll immediately notice a huge difference in soundstage.
Sound Controls: There is a Sound control knob with 3 settings: A, T and B, which is separate from the actual Ton controls. It’s a little unconventional. The tone controls only work when “T” is selected. T and B are louder than A. A has more clarity and B seems to have a thicker sound with more bass. There is a slight popping sound when switching between these Sound settings.
Tone Controls: The bass and treble tone controls on the TS34 are very subtle. Don’t expect a massive change in the frequency response. The effect of the treble control is almost unnoticeable. But it’s there, very nuanced.
Input Selection: There is a little bit of cross talk between the inputs but only noticeable when volume is turned up very high. There is a Home Theater (HT) input which can be used to connect a preamplifier or a Home Theater AVR. It runs at full volume at all times. Switching between inputs 1-2-3-4 is fine but if you switch to or from the HT input it causes a very loud “pop” at full volume through your speakers, regardless of your volume control setting. The rotary input selector only works when the amp is on, so the only workaround would be to disconnect your speakers before selecting the HT input, however this is specifically prohibited in the user manual. Speakers need to be connected at all times. This pop issue is something Thomas is very well aware of and he said that he is looking to address it in the future.

The Galion TS34 amplifier is nothing short of phenomenal. The sound quality is top-notch, delivering rich, clear audio that brings every song to life. For the first four months, it worked flawlessly, and I was thoroughly impressed.

However, the amplifier went into auto shutoff mode recently and I reached out to Thomas via email. His response was pretty much immediate. He shipped out new tubes without hesitation to help troubleshoot the unit, but when that didn’t resolve the issue, he sent out a brand-new unit to get me back up and running as quickly as possible.

The return process was seamless too—Thomas arranged a UPS pickup from my home, saving me the hassle of hauling the unit to a drop-off location. It was one of the easiest and most supportive customer service experiences I've had. Highly recommend both the Galion TS34 and the incredible support that comes with it!