Cooler Master Musketeer III Tube Amplifier Review :: Problems, Problems

Of course with all golden (or amber, in this case) tickets, there seems to be a silver lining, or in this case, a few extremely frustrating quirks. The first of these quirks is the fact that the inbuilt VU meter is far, far too frigging sensitive. Half the time I'll be sitting there at my computer, and behind the music, I'll just hear "click click click" as the needle from the VU meter slams against the right wall time and time again, even when the volume slider is down under a quarter of the way. Basically, since this unit can only amplify one channel, any bass on that channel will make the VU meter go nuts, which will irritate most users, especially when you've had blood pressure go sky high before from hard disks making that same click.

Unit installed

VU meter problems

The second problem, of course is the fact that the first thing you'll notice plugging this unit in is that your volume has just gone WAY down. Trying the unit with headphones on, the sound was barely audible, and this is with system volume as well as the volume slider at their maximum points. These headphones, under normal conditions (plugged into the front audio port) are loud enough to be heard across the room. Not good. Even more amusing, the aforementioned VU meter can be sitting in the red zone yet whispers will come from the user's headphones. Now, granted, this issue may be due to the utilization of substandard onboard audio, but honestly, what user is going to attach a $50 single vacuum tube amplifier to a $250 soundcard?

Thirdly, it's just the simple fact that vacuum tubes don't live forever, and Cooler Master doesn't say much in the manual about how to replace yours once it dies. That means that a few years down the road, there will be a pop, and the sounds of the city will grind to a permanent halt. Not cool. Not to mention the fact that there are really going to be some disappointed buyers out there, after all, any amplifier worth its mettle is not going to be using a single tube, and considering that the maximum audible output is between 5 and 30 watts, there's little point in trusting this unit to drive un-amplified speakers for you. In order for this unit to be a true solution for a single channel, it should probably be featuring about four tubes, albeit that would come at the cost of, well, cost. Adding extra channels (remember, four of these are needed for 7.1 setups, and 3 are needed for 5.1 setups) would mean adding extra tubes and extra regulation circuitry to the mix, which just means a much bigger, more complicated unit. Generally, I would say that users would be better off digging around the local Goodwill for a faux wood grain and tarnished aluminum amplifier to feed their speaker setups.

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