Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

@decooney I bought 4 pairs of PsVane CV181s and out of those, I received 1 tube that did not work out of the box, and one that hummed pretty badly. The ones that I kept in, I listened to as long as I could, which was likely less than 200 hours. I found them quite uninvolving and euphonic to listen to and that didn't change from hour 1 to the last hour I listened to them. I've never had any 6SN7s take longer than 100 hours to start to develop their character, and the Linlai Elites never sounded bad at any point during my listening. The Linlais produced beautiful colors and tonality at around the 70-80 hour mark and are very involving to listen to. While their detail is not lacking in any way, I believe that the Sylvania "Bad Boys" have better detail throughout, but are not as involving to listen to IMHO.

Best, Aric

@aricaudio fwiw, I followed a long 2-year case study on asian overseas DOA tubes.  Went a different route on buying more direct and original packaging.  Not buying from the lots removed and repackaged by US distributors or dealers when I can help it.  Three quads and three paired sets later, (0) zero failures on arrival.

Knock on wood, two years play time on TJFMs, one year on small PSVanes, hoping the CV181-TIIs hold up too..   Bought the Premium Pairs in the hard cases with foam inserts, direct.  Not the flimsy thin boxes, getting repacked and resold in the US. We'll see if the theory pays off here too. Sounding very nice right now, no euphonics.  Smoother and less grainy than my very best 60's Sylvania vintage triple hole black pates.  We'll see how it goes a year from now after long use.      

@rocray @decooney, congratulations on the tubes. Please keep us posted as they burn in. How many hours do the Psvanes require?

@markusthenaimnut @decooney good to hear that you’re evaluating the Psvanes. I’ll be watching thread with interest.

75hrs: knock on wood, so far so good. I like them. The 2yr old TJ Full Music 6SN7s have a tad more detail on super top-end and neutral midrange, yet the new PSVANEs have a slight roll off of the highs at the very top end, and slightly more pronounced midrange and texture that I really like. The detail is there, maybe a tad darker between notes - kinda nice. I’m kind of a midrange freak with guitar string tones, piano keys, and mid and lower register of voices, saxophones, violins, etc.

When I mix the PSVANE CV181-TIIs s in my preamplifier and the broken in KT120s in my mono block tube amps, the combination gives a pleasant sound overall. Nothing is fatiguing and most everything is engaging with different sources, tracks. Fortunately had most of this stuff ordered before all this sad war stuff started going on.

@decooney ,Glad to hear the Psvanes are working out. Would you say the TJ’s are bright in comparison,or just detailed? 

hI @rocray I sent you a private message with a scale regarding tubes both of us are familiar with.  No, TJFM are not bright in comparsion.  The PSVANES are little softer than TJFM with my preamp and setup.