Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

@rocray those are absolutely stellar tubes and the feedback you were given on them it spot on! I have a pair myself and they are just as fast and nuanced as any other tube I've tried, and once broken in have incredible body and soul. I've purchased several pair for customers and highly recommend them. I hope this helps, and best wishes. Aric

@decooney I bought 4 pairs of PsVane CV181s and out of those, I received 1 tube that did not work out of the box, and one that hummed pretty badly. The ones that I kept in, I listened to as long as I could, which was likely less than 200 hours. I found them quite uninvolving and euphonic to listen to and that didn't change from hour 1 to the last hour I listened to them. I've never had any 6SN7s take longer than 100 hours to start to develop their character, and the Linlai Elites never sounded bad at any point during my listening. The Linlais produced beautiful colors and tonality at around the 70-80 hour mark and are very involving to listen to. While their detail is not lacking in any way, I believe that the Sylvania "Bad Boys" have better detail throughout, but are not as involving to listen to IMHO.

Best, Aric

@laaudionut I haven’t tried the Shuguang Treasure 6SL7s yet, but I have tried the PsVane CV-181 (6SN7) TII which are very similar, if not identical to the ’guang Treasure CV-181. I can assuredly state that the Linlai Elite 6SN7s blow the TII 6SN7 Treasures out of the water. I don’t know if the SL7s will match up the same, but my gut says the Linlai’s are superior tubes. You can purchase Linlai from Grant Fidelity in Canada, or for quite a bit less from a reputable seller on eBay "kt88_6550" whom I’ve purchased from more than a few times with excellent service.

Aric

@rocray I haven't had an opportunity to put more than 200 hours on 2 sets of the Elites as I was only burning them for customers to send with their preamps. However, out of all of the Linlai tubes I've tested and used (more extensively were there DG series 845s, Elite 2A3s and baseline 5U4Gs), I have not heard a tic, pop, or any other anamoly whatsoever. This is out of well over a dozen pairs tried. I cannot say the same for many of the top tier PsVane tubes I've used, and that's all I'll say about the PsVanes with the exception of their ACME 211s.

I hope this helps, Aric

Sorry for the delay, I'm just seeing this now. So far, I've only used the Linlai Elite 6SN7s without the "Global" silk-screening on them, and I've received 5 pair so far and not had any issues with any of them, and they have all sounded the same. All have had a metal plate internally with a serial number engraved on it. I hope this helps, Aric

@jtcf Hey! I would recommend you experiment with the Linlais on either side of the center 6SN7, as they are long-tailed pair phase splitters and indeed to impart quite a bit of their own character to the sound. The center tube is the voltage amplifier and as such amplifies the input signal, so even though it will have the MOST effect, it does not mean that trying in the phase splitter positions will not still provide a dramatic difference. How is the new amp working out for you by the way?

Best regards, Aric

@jtcf Oops! My bad, for some reason I was thinking we had built an amp for you earlier this year. Sometimes I get the Agon monikers confused with the actual names of the customers. However I'm very glad that the amplifier is the star of the show in your system and thank you!

Aric