Due to my history of importing Chinese audio components, several years ago, a number of people approached me in regard to doing the same with vacuum tubes.
Over the course of a couple of years, I sold a lot of Shuguang and Psvane tubes. While I found the ruggedness encouraging, the level of sonics surprised me most. In my experience, outside of today’s more exotic production, Chinese vacuum tubes represent the best sounding, most reliable in current production.
The base Shuguang 12AX7B, 2A3B / 2A3C, 300B, 211, 845, EL34B, EL84, and KT88 cost less than pretty much anything else out there, provide good sound, and the best reliability currently available. Yes, there were some tube types that did not hold up in the field, and after discovering that, I stayed away from them.
The Shuguang 12AX7B aka Silver Dragon bests most American and European offering from the golden age. I didn’t believe it, and it still seems implausible. But they blew the Mullard 12AX7 right out of my Jadis. I hosted a tube shoot out with 20+ audiophiles, some of which post here on Audiogon. We ended up breaking things up into three rounds of elimination. The Shuguangs surprisingly bounced such highly regarded tubes as the Telefunken smooth plate and Mullard, to make it to the last round to place in the top 3, along with the Sylvania triple mica black plate 5751 and Telefunken ribbed plate.
I’m not a big a fan of the sonics of the Shuguang 6SN7 and 5AR4, but have still found them quite reliable. I love the JJ 5AR4 in comparison, sonically, and that’s what I use in my amps as sound is my highest priority. But the JJ 5AR4 disappoint me as they just fail / arc over too easily. I will say the ugly and old looking NOS metal base Shuguang 6SN7 variant (labelled 6N8P) sound pretty good.
Because of personal experience, and learning the hard way, no one’s more skeptical of Chinese high-end audio components and the companies that produce or sell them as I am. But the vacuum tubes come from a different industry; one I have gained far more confidence in.
Over the course of a couple of years, I sold a lot of Shuguang and Psvane tubes. While I found the ruggedness encouraging, the level of sonics surprised me most. In my experience, outside of today’s more exotic production, Chinese vacuum tubes represent the best sounding, most reliable in current production.
The base Shuguang 12AX7B, 2A3B / 2A3C, 300B, 211, 845, EL34B, EL84, and KT88 cost less than pretty much anything else out there, provide good sound, and the best reliability currently available. Yes, there were some tube types that did not hold up in the field, and after discovering that, I stayed away from them.
The Shuguang 12AX7B aka Silver Dragon bests most American and European offering from the golden age. I didn’t believe it, and it still seems implausible. But they blew the Mullard 12AX7 right out of my Jadis. I hosted a tube shoot out with 20+ audiophiles, some of which post here on Audiogon. We ended up breaking things up into three rounds of elimination. The Shuguangs surprisingly bounced such highly regarded tubes as the Telefunken smooth plate and Mullard, to make it to the last round to place in the top 3, along with the Sylvania triple mica black plate 5751 and Telefunken ribbed plate.
I’m not a big a fan of the sonics of the Shuguang 6SN7 and 5AR4, but have still found them quite reliable. I love the JJ 5AR4 in comparison, sonically, and that’s what I use in my amps as sound is my highest priority. But the JJ 5AR4 disappoint me as they just fail / arc over too easily. I will say the ugly and old looking NOS metal base Shuguang 6SN7 variant (labelled 6N8P) sound pretty good.
Because of personal experience, and learning the hard way, no one’s more skeptical of Chinese high-end audio components and the companies that produce or sell them as I am. But the vacuum tubes come from a different industry; one I have gained far more confidence in.