Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

Or the Linlai HiFi 6SN7s that Grant Fidelity is offering?

I was (and am) excited to see this thread. Then I looked at the prices. Ouch! You can buy a lot of vintage goodness for the price of a pair of these tubes. Really!

Having said that, next question is where are you guys buying your Linlai tubes?

And one more question - any a you guys compared these to the Grant Fidelity "Treasure Globes"?

@rocray please continue to follow up with posts on this thread describing your experience with these tubes.  Especially if you're able to compare them to some of the well regarded vintage tubes.

Has anyone here compared the Linlai E 6SN7s to the Shuguang WE 6SN7 Plus tubes?

Don Sachs was using the Shuguangs for a while and thought very highly of them. I haven't heard either.

@rocray Good to hear. And @decooney good to hear that you’re evaluating the Psvanes. I’ll be watching thread with interest.

This thread is causing my "need to increase my backup supply of tubes" addiction to rear its’ ugly head again. 🤨 I don’t need more 6SN7s. I’ve got a pretty good supply. But there’s always that nagging fear of missing out. After all, I never bought any of those so-called WE 6SN7 plus tubes, which were very highly rated, and they became unavailable. Neither did I every buy any of the various versions of the CV-181s, and they’re very highly rated, too. 😕 I’m almost afraid of trying either the Linlais or the Psvanes. If I like them I’ll want another pair as backup. Geez! Not to mention the fact that I also run 300Bs in one of my amps and know there are a lot of good sounding options out there for those, including the Linlai options. 🤔

I think that picture is helpful. One thing it seems to show is that this tube shares some characteristics with the well-regarded so-called Shuguang WE 6SN7 plus tubes that were around a couple years ago. They also were constructed with the tube structure positioned very high in the tube also. I have no idea how or why this might affect performance, but thought I'd mention it.

I have read on the Supratek owner’s thread that Mick is shipping his preamps with these tubes. I think that says something positive about them.

I've sent him an email to confirm this and requested his opinion on these tubes.

Mark

Mick responded to my emailed question by citing the worldwide shortage of new production tubes.

In answer to my question about whether he thinks they sound particularly good he simply stated they sound about as good as any current production tubes.

So, let's not over-interpret his use of them. Sounds like if he could get a reliable source of the Russian tubes he's used he'd go back to them without a second thought.

This isn't to say that those who like these tubes are incorrect or that they're not better than other tubes. I think that's the purpose of this thread, is to collect the experience of those who are trying them out.

@ram18 

My counsel is to let the JJ tubes burn in for a while. 

Based on the information you've shared about your system I think it is too early to attribute any specific aspects of the sound to the JJ tubes. There are so many aspects of the system that could affect the sound. Rolling tubes can be fun but can also be "throwing money at a problem". 

I notice that there are folks on the internet who like to state their opinion as if it is a "fact". My experience is that the impact/signature of a particular type of tube on a system can be affected by many variables above and beyond the tube. "Expectation" and popular opinion can be major influences here. For instance, if there's a thread on the 'net in which many folks are jumping on the bandwagon there's a temptation (at least for me) to join the party and hope that my experience mirrors that of the others on the thread. It's human nature. It's not a big deal. IMHO it does suggest that there's no reason to be in a hurry to roll tubes. Instead, maybe, play with speaker placement. Or adjust the trim pot on a tweater (if your speakers have them). Or unplug/re-plug your interconnects and dress your cables. Try a "non-critical" listening session. Have the music on while you're working, reading, puttering around the house. Let the system settle and burn in. Give it a month before you do any critical assessment.

Just my .02 and other's mileage may vary...

I've been watching thread with interest. I wonder if those of you who've purchased these tubes can address a few questions. 

As far as I can tell, only Grant Fidelity is selling tubes in two ranges - the "top 10% ultra low noise" and the "factory QC passed, driver quality". Has anyone compared these two ranges?

This raises the question what are people getting when they purchase from the other sellers mentioned on this thread? My sense is there's no free lunch and the lower price tubes that are being sold might be equivalent to the Grant Fidelity's "factory QC passed" tubes. It sounds like everybody who's buying these tubes is liking/loving them pretty well. Maybe the "top 10% ultra low noise" is not a requirement for these tubes to sound good. What do you think?

Also, has anyone who has purchased these tubes tested them and compared your results to those small sheets/reports you receive with the tubes? I'm sure the results won't be the same, but you might at least be able to see how closely the two sections match.

Another piece of information that would be helpful would be to hear what kind of circuit you're putting them in - are they going into a preamp, like a Supratek? Or are they going into a power amp, like in a driver position for a 300B tube? I'm using 6SN7s in both applications and would like to hear from all of you.

Best regards,

Markus no longer really the Naimnut...

@jtcf Now that you've done this tweak with the dampers how do you think the Linlais compare to other 6SN7s you've lived with?