Do you Know a Trusted Seller of Chinese Vacuum Tubes?


With the terrible Russian offensive/war and the drying up of NOS tubes, I ventured more deeply into Chinese tubes.  

Does anyone have a recommended seller who might actually test for noise/microphonics?  I wish Kevin Deal's outfit would start carrying some of the premium offerings.  I'm surprised he doesn't given (I think) Primaluna branded tubes are likely Chinese (Shuguang, maybe?).  

Some of the Chinese preamp tubes I've tried sound glorious. Getting them without noise can be a challenge. 

 

jbhiller

Showing 1 response by riparian

Grant Fidelity – Premium Vacuum Tubes (https://premiumvacuumtubes.com) is a seller which I trust for Linlai tubes. The Linlai Global Elites are very good vacuum tubes from China. Grant Fidelity provides testing and screening service beyond the testing which the manufacturer provides. Most of the vacuum tubes sold are used in SET circuits like 2A3s, 300Bs, 211, 845, and 274Bs. The variety of input tubes and other output tubes are limited though so Grant Fidelity may not serve everyone's needs. 

It would be nice if there were more retail sales partners based in North America (or Europe) who screen Chinese tubes before selling them. There are some preselected varieties, like from Tube Amp Doctor (TAD) which are likely more consistent in quality than vacuum tubes bought from Amazon.com, or sellers based in China. TAD might still source from Russia and locations other than China, so it is best to do homework on each desired tube type regarding their likely origin.