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PSVANE 12Au7 12At7 12Ax7 "-T MKII" 2020 production run of small signal/driver tubes

Re-testing year 2020 production run of these tubes. Would like to hear from others who’ve re-tried recent production?

>>PSVANE 12Au7 12At7 12Ax7 "-T MKII" small signal/driver tubes made in year 2020"

Background:
After following stories about TJ Full Music’s founder passing, and the son reselling tooling of all of the small signal tubes to PSVANE, and recent luck over the past year with TJ 6SN7 tubes for my preamp, I thought I’d give the new PSVANE small tubes a retry. Checking to see if any designs or manufacturing goodness made it over to PSVANE yet from TJ. Also, took advantage of an opportunity to buy these direct from a major overseas distributor, direct. So far so good. Comparing to other known vintage tubes. Also following AudioNote’s recent use of PSVANE tubes in their preamplifiers, amplifiers, integrated amplifiers.

GOAL:
Find something "close enough" and hoard away all my vintage tubes. An improvement is always great too.  

COMPARISONS to vintage, others:
-Currently comparing to my vintage stash of 1960s Mullard "Blackburn", Tungsram, RCA, Sylvania, others.
-Also comparing to prior 2012 versions of these same PSVANE tubes made over eight years ago.
-No need to compare to new re-issue Mullard or JJ or other. Seems these new PSVANE are on a different level.

INITIAL Impression first 20 hours:
-a tad harsh and grainy
-midrange is obvious
-top end not rolled off
-sound stage front row, initially
-decent, interesting

AFTER 72 hours burn-in:
-smoothing out nicely, not there yet, close
-sound stage dropping back to mid-hall
-texture starting to come in
-nice midrange, top end smoothing out more
-tone of piano and guitars shaping up nicely
-Nice, haven’t pulled them yet!

APPLICATION
My mono tube amplifiers
(2) Input tubes; 12AU7s
(2) driver tubes; 12AT7s
Friend testing in his preamp
(2) Input, preamp: 12AX7s

------------------------------
REQUEST:
Would like to hear from others who’ve re-tried recent 2020 production of PSVANE 12AU7 or 12AT7 or 12AX7 ?
What are you hearing, are they better than prior PSVANE versions you tried years ago? Similar findings or ???





decooney
tooblue
1,882 posts
 
@audioman58 , I made a reference on this thread a few months ago that I had ordered a sextet of the Psvane Cossor 12AU7 tubes, well they never arrived, got lost, so I ordered a matched octet of Psvane 12AU7-S from Viva and installed them in my phono, with about 200 hours on them they sound great and am looking to replace 3 more pairs in other pieces of gear I own. Enjoy the music
audioquest4life
720 posts
 
I have been using the PSvane 12AU7 for years in my Octave Jubilee preamp. I had previously been using many NOS ECC82 variants such a as those from RFT, Siemens, and GEs. I had on occasion lost an NOS tube in my preamp, which caused other problems, fuses blown, down time, aNd angst that my electronics were going to get fried the next time an NOS tube blows. Not to say that it can’t happen with new tubes, because it can, but, I feel that age of tubes may increase the odds of a tube dying.

The Psvane 12AU7s I used were, and still are, the MKII versions, the latest set bought in 2014, they sound great. I bought 12 matched sets at the time, and some in reserve still. Nothing overhyped or extremely accentuated. They do have more bite at the top as mentioned when new, but after some hours, it seems like the music is just more filled in terms of presence and better resolution. This for me translates to better lifelike experiences when reproducing music as texture and detail retrieval is right at the top of anything else I have ever heard with regards to the variant of 12AU7 tubes.

I want to evaluate the new black carbon versions. The story about the factory changes is very interesting.
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,828 posts
 
Good to hesr Viva tubes have been dependable.
decooney OP
1,896 posts
 
Viva has been great for me as well, buying/testing 14+ tubes, past two years and zero returns.

Switched back to my vintage 1965 Mullard Blackburn 12AU7 / 12AT7 pairs for the past few months to re-compare for a while. Was just thinking tonight that I need to swap back to the PSVANEs again, they do have a nice sound. :)
decooney OP
1,896 posts
 
First, "Midrange is more present and more forward" and "wider across the front" is what came to mind first when switching (again) from NOS Mullards back to PSVANE MKII 12AU7 / 12AU7 tubes today in my Mono tube amps. Can hear more when listening off axis or in an adjacent open room if you like walk-around listening.   

Second, noticing the background soundstage and subtle detail is still "there" at the same time.

The PSVANE small signal tubes do have their own character and presentation compared to any of my NOS tubes. Worth trying for sure.
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