Best 845 tube out there?

Thanks all, that was very helpful. I can eliminate two candidate tubes straight off the bat - the Shuguang 845C and KR 845 are off the list because of incompatibility.

Someone mentioned the Sophia Electric 845. A quick google shows this: http://www.sophiaelectric.com/pages/se/845.htm

Is the Sophia 845 a rebranded tube, or do they manufacture it themselves?

Brf, would a quad of SuperTNT Nobleman be as expensive as the other tubes (RCA, Amperex, etc).

Hi Ed, I would second Davvie's request. Are you planning to obtain a pair of Shuguang 845T's in the near future?

Thanks for posting, Davvie. Can you describe the differences between the PSVANE and the 845B?

Thanks Davvie. I think I will have to buy myself a set of those tubes now.

I have had a closer look at the Shuguang psvane 845T's. There is a very large image here: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?s=107c668285cec06d56e3d26723df6ab1&t=318310

Now compare that to the Shuguang 845B. The best image I could find is here: http://www.edsawyer.com/images/845mb.large.jpg (the 845B is on the left).

Note the main difference - the Psvane 845T lacks the solid winged side support, and consequently has a plate at the top to stabilize the tube against the glass. On lesser 845's (e.g. the Shuguang 845), the mica top plate was criticized for causing microphonics.

Starting to have some doubts now.

Thanks for the clarification everyone. I have ordered a quad set of 845T's from Grant Fidelity. Will post impressions once I get them.

I have received my Shuggy 845T's from Grant Fidelity. The first thing I noticed was that the elements on one of the valves was not aligned properly. Three of the four valves sit at 45 degrees on my amp, this particular valve sits at 30 degrees. It is not an issue with my socket, or the way I have installed it either - I removed the valve and inspected it, and it is indeed out of alignment compared to the other valves.

Whether it affects the function, I do not know. Grant Fidelity did not send me a calibration sheet (which apparently accounts for most of their premium pricing).

I have emailed them asking for an exchange for a fresh set of tubes. Waiting to hear back from them.

In the meantime, the new valves sound closed in, congested, and lacking in top and bottom frequency extension. I am not discouraged, because my "old" 845's sounded like this when they were brand new. The truth will be out once the valves are burnt in. Or rather, my new set of valves once I return this set to Grant Fidelity.

72 hours of burn-in on my 845T's now. The tubes are starting to open up, with the top end more extended. Bass is still poor, but getting better. Soundstage now extends to slightly beyond both speakers. Front to back layering still not as good as the original valves.

Have received word from Grant Fidelity that Shuguang do not consider a mis-aligned valves a waranteeable item, so they will not accept a return. To be fair to them, the valve does appear to work as advertised with no noticable difference between the left and right channel.

Anyway, continuing to burn in and we will see what happens.

Thought I would report back again. My amps have hardly been turned off for the past 12 days as I continue to burn these valves in at maximum effort! They now have nearly 150 hours on them and they are massively improved and are still improving. It seems as if every day I listen to them, the soundstage gets wider, and the bottom end opens up even more. The top end is already better than my old valves.

About the one thing I do not like with these valves is a bloominess in the midrange which was absent in my previous valves. Having said that, the bloominess is not that prominent and some people might actually like it.

Szyckf I am definitely interested in trying the KR 845M's in my amplifier. I use a pair of Cary CAD-211AE monoblocks. I do not know if my amps have a regulated filament supply.

I haven't said so in this thread, but I have 3 KR 845's (not 845M's). I originally had two pairs, but one of them was burnt up by the amplifier - what had happened was that the bias capacitor to one of the 845's came adrift and snapped off, so that particular 845 socket was receiving a much higher bias current than all the other valves. I started to realize that something was up when the same socket kept on burning out 845's.