Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

Quick and last update. A couple of days ago I gave up the sweet spot to my brother who was visiting for the day and wanted to spend some time listening. While seated off to the side the music was virtually close to perfect to me.Face Palm.I toed the speakers out an inch and a quarter attempting to get that same angle and voila.Never occurred to me to to make an adjustment like that to accommodate a vacuum tube,but it should have.

Hi folks, I finally purchased a pair of the Linlai E 6SN7 tubes a couple of months ago from Grand Fidelity. I probably have about 150 hours on it now. I thought I would share my experience with my dear fellow members.

I have the Cary SLP-05 preamp. It uses 2 pairs of 6SN7 for the gain stage, and 1 pair of 6SN7 for the balanced input buffer stage. I have already changed out the 2 pairs of the gain stage tubes from the stock EH tubes to some NOS RCA. The stock EH tubes sounded a little bit bright to me. The RCA took the edge off a bit, and sounded warmer which I like. So the new Linlai replaced the pair for the balanced input buffer stage.

So far, I’m really liking these new Linlai tubes. 2 things that stand out are deeper and tighter bass, and a beautiful 3D-ish and spacious sound stage. There seems to be more space between instruments. I might consider buying 2 more pairs of Linlai for the gain stage in the future, but I’m enjoying my current set up right now. Linlai sells a cheaper version of 6SN7 called the Global HiFi. Has anyone here tried them and can you share your experience?

I am currently using 3 pairs of Socket Savers that I bought from amazon, so I can do some A/B testing without putting too much wear and tear on the sockets of my preamp. After I had decided the Linlai will be my choice, I removed the socket savers and inserted the Linlai directly into the socket of my preamp, and something unexpected happened.

Without the socket saver, the 3D and spacious sound stage seemed to have shrunk, and deep bass seemed to have lessened. Also the top end seemed to be a little brighter. I have always assumed the socket saver would either lower the overall SQ or at best leaving the SQ unchanged. I never expected them to improve the SQ.

I wouldn’t say this is a pleasant surprise, because I actually did want to remove the socket saver to lower the height on the tubes. I have a TV mounted on the wall behind my components cabinet. The Cary sits on the top of the cabinet. With the Linlai tube + socket saver, it blocks the bottom of the TV screen by an inch or so. It’s not a big deal. I don’t even notice it while I’m watching TV. Anyhow, aesthetically I do like the look without the socket saver better.

Anyway, for the benefit of better SQ, I’m now leaving the Linlai on the socket saver. For those of you who use socket savers, what is your experience regarding the SQ with and without the socket savers? I’ll be curious to know.

Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Where's the best place to purchase Linlai?

https://linlaiglobal.com/

Get them direct or there is no warranty.

AFAIK, Linlai Global and Grand Fidelity are the only "official" retailer.   Other members here gotten them from some Chinese Retailers or eBay at a lower price and had good results.

@xcool  I wonder if the socket saver fits a little tighter around the pins of the tube and fits tighter around the tube sockets on your preamp, that could be the difference.