12AU7 Genalex or Psvane for Cayin Hybrid Integrated H80A

@ericjcabrera

If you can get past the initial brightness of the Psvanes, then once they settle in IME the Psvanes are a real winner. After the 70 hours they have that "Goldilocks" "Just Right" signature sound to them, at least in my Set up. I feel they do favour resolution over warmth, so may not be entirely what you after, but they are not a cold sounding tube, pretty neutral in that respect. Where it suits me in the Vincent SA-T8 Pre. is depending what Source I use, most of my sources are on the "warmish" side. I feel for the money the Psvanes would be extremely hard to beat in Dimensionality, quietness, micro/macro dynamics, black background and resolution. They reproduce instruments and voices beautifully throughout the whole audio spectrum.

I also rolled a Quad of Psvanes 12AX7's in my DOGE 8 Phono Stage. Made only a small improvement over the supplied no-name Chinese tubes, feel that the the Doge 8 has an average Phono stage. And this may be the secret. The better the Component the better the Psvane's perform? Possibly the massive leap in performance in the Vincent SA-T8 Pre. over the supplied Tubes, might be due to that it is an outstanding Pre. Certainly the best I've heard at anywhere near it's cost and a lot more, and might be allowing the Psvanes to really shine?

Soon I'm going to roll a quad of Psvane 12AX7's in my Unison Research CDE CD Player replacing the stock Electro Harmonix Tubes. Will be interesting. Unsure how much difference rolling Tubes in CD Players makes?

OP - contact Upscale Audio. Read the tube reviews (by users!) on their website before you call them. Bought many tubes over the years from them for my tube phono, pre and power amps. Have fun!

Wow, much food for thought here; thanks folks. Haven’t yet pulled the trigger on any 12au7 yet. Making phone calls on those NOS experts, but still open to differing opinions / observations.

Very curious how a true NOS tube will fair in my system, since I have never tried any NOS tube. Concerned mostly with noise that some report NOS tubes exhibit, but then again that concern may apply to just about any tube.

One thing for certain, I do not like bright overly detailed. My preference is warm, full bodied, and awesome bass; dare I say, 'Dark' . . . so maybe NOS Mullard will be my cup of tea?

Hi,

NOS Mullards have a stellar reputation, don’t think you could go wrong with it provided they’re in good condition. Based on what you described NOS Mullards and NOS Tungsol’s would fit the bill.

I change my preamp tubes from time to time between NOS and new prods and sometimes a combination of both just to experiment. Tube rolling can make one go crazy!

Very curious how a true NOS tube will fair in my system, since I have never tried any NOS tube. Concerned mostly with noise that some report NOS tubes exhibit, but then again that concern may apply to just about any tube.

NOS are less noisy than the typical new-production tube. They’re also far more reliable. I have a pair of RCA 12au7s that were manufactured in the 50s, and a pair that were manufactured during WWII. Both perform better than the pairs of new-production tubes they replaced. Unlike many technologies, tube manufacture has not improved over the last few decades, quite the contrary in fact. Some of the Chinese factories have improved their QC in recent years, but the reliability and build quality of their tubes still pales in comparison.

On second thought, please stick to new production tubes. Stay far, far away from NOS tubes, you should want nothing to do with them. They’re absolutely terrible!