Shootout of Nos 6sn7 tubes

@Linlai Elites E

$354 delivered for a pair of chinese tubes? Oh hell no. Plus, chinese tubes are notorious for short life span. Good luck with these. 

@charliee ken-rad 7193 sounds interesting but I need less choices not more🤪.  For $165 for a pair I am willing to give Linlai-E’s a go.  I have not heard that these Linlai-E’s have had short life issues?  Several well respected Amp makers now use them with glowing recommendations.  Anyone experience issues with Linlai E’s?

@tksteingraber Thanks for the feedback on the 50’s Melz tubes. I find your observation regarding the constricted soundstage interesting. My 1982 1578 exemplars excel at soundstaging IMO. Perhaps a loss of some soundstaging is the price one pays to get the reputedly more balanced midrange of the 50s tubes?

Apparently it is not uncommon for the early Melz to have noise issues. IIRC there is a tutorial (on head-fi.org?) for resoldering the pins on Melz tubes that has been reported to yield positive results in many cases.

Regarding the upper-midrange prominence I was experiencing early on from the 1982 1578s, I ran the ISOTEK break-in/conditioning track several times and it seems to have further reduced this. These tubes are sounding very good now, but I still perceive that, despite the strengths you denote in your post above, they lack the musicality and emotional engagement of the NU 6f8g’s or the TungSol VT-231s. More time will tell…

I am interested in hearing your feedback on the Linlai Elite.

@dlcockrum ok update on Melz noise issue. Seller told me 30-40% of these older Melz tubes have noise issues due to old tin solder in the pins. He told me to heat each pin with a solder iron and get them hot enough to repair internal joints. He said it rarely doesn’t solve the issue. I got my solder iron out and the noise is gone now👍! Time will tell if the noise stays away🤞. These tubes paired with my DAC 1974 Reflector 6N23P Single Wire Silver Shields is beyond what I thought my modest system had in it. They just sound better in every way with zero fatigue. I am truly surprised the impact tubes can make.It is going to be hard to switch them out but each tube has its pro’s and cons.

@tksteingraber 

I have read that it’s closer to 50% of them are noisy/microphonic. That’s pretty good odds of getting bad tubes. You really need a competent and honest seller if you are going to buy them.