PSVANE Mfg Co replaced my older 6SN7 CV-181 TII tubes
Sharing - in case this might help others. This came out of the blue unexpectedly.
Over the holidays I had written PSVANE Co Mfg asking why my older TJ Full Music 6SN7s simply sounded better than my 3yr old PSVANE CV-181 TII tubes I only used 1yr. These TIIs had a mfg date of Oct 2021. Used them some, they got dull. Had been just sitting there in a fancy box and I happened to mention it vaguely over one email that was more about the new line of tubes and wondering about change overall with the new series of tubes. I was not there for any other reason.
Also confirmed that PSVANE did in fact buy tooling and some of the smaller tubes business from TJFM after the father passed on. Another reason I was comparing.
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I was #1 asking if any of the TJFM tooling and offerings had made its way into the new lines of PSVANE had been offering in 2024, including ArtSeries, Horizon lines.
#2 reason was to get an idea of what may have changed since coming out of the pandemic and/if there were updates on the overall design, quality, testing, QA for any of the 6SN7 CV-181 types of tubes, PSVANE, other lines.
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Long story, I get this reply back a day or so later from someone there [not identifying a name, just an email distro list] asking me to send photos of the tubes, test tags, boxes etc. Back and forth a few times over email with good English and extra help coming in - nice, interesting.
I had also recalled recently seeing psvane tubes showing up here as.a member on Agon and that time was short lived before being removed by Agon admins or someone. It was clear to me they were trying to assess their position, customers, and any feedback they could get here on Audiogon. So, I gave it directly over email. Honestly,still hung up on why my older TJFM tubes sounded better :)
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RESPONSE:
PSVANE immediately came back and told me there were known "quality assurance issues" during that Oct 2021 period and they "would happily replace the tubes with new ones", shipped to me "free of charge", direct from the factory. Also expressing how those matters have since been resolved and did not want unhappy customers.
I agreed to their policy to physically "break my tubes, smash the glass, photograph them, send them photos". This is so bad tubes don’t end up back on the market being resold and causing further complaints no longer the case with new versions.
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Tubes arrived in 17 days after they agreed to pack well and ship. They are the same TIIs with a different looking "T Series" label on the box outside for T-Series.
From the outside, same shape, size, same gray coating, bigger than my TJ Full Music as before. These 2025 tubes look close to the 2021 version outside.
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SOUND, out of the box:
First test they were a little veiled over for the first 1-20 minutes. At hours 1-4 increasingly opening up, texture and sound stage all coming in at once - with definite separation, not blurred together at all. Pretty neat actually.
6SN7 tube preamp, 50w Class A solid state amp for the first try. Tube amps later.
Track:"In my secret life" by Leonard Cohen
Hearing his voice direct at the center, and female singers coming out of Right & Left channel at the speakers from both sides - all at the same time but with real separation. Some of my other 6SN7s can co-mingle the sound just a little bit.
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Changes:
Why Share:
I replied to the person of authority there who replaced these tubes for me that I’d make a post of exactly what resulted and that I’d tell it straight as I hear it good or bad starting out. Maybe some updates later over time as tbd.
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Next:
I’ll leave these full replacements in my preamp for at least 90 days or unless something changes.
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Summary:
Glad I gave these newer 2025 PSVANE a 2nd chance vs buying others like the Horizon or just staying with my older TJFM still lasting well, gonna store those.
We’ll see how this goes and if they last. Hope to keep them in play, they sound very nice right now. 
Not sure if this helps anyone or not but some times it might be worth giving things a 2nd try maybe, and particularly so when the MFG wants to help make good on it.
Enjoying what Im hearing right now. It’s causing me to keep my SS amp in play for longer too, no joke the guitar tone, texture, and spatial sound is extra nice now fwiw. .
@marco1 will be curious if they open up a little more in the next few weeks or not. My new replacement PSVANE 6SN7s sound a little better in my tube preamp after a tad more time on them. They are not overly uber-detail, which is great for my taste. More on the smooth side yet open reasonably so, detail still comes through without any etch - if that make sense, a nice balance. Tonally better than my best vintage 6SN7s hoarded away. |
@decooney thanks for the tip. i’ll plan to let them play for now to see if they do change for the better. Which Psvane 6sn7 do you have, Horizon or Art? If I did continue trying other Psvane tubes I was thinking about trying 6sn7 next as both my preamp and amp use them. Smooth and tonally balanced with reasonably good detail (no etching) is what I look for too. Out of curiosity have you tried Rays tubes? I have not but read that Psvane might make some of the variants that Rays markets. |
@marco1 maybe we can talk offline later about some your Qs. In short, my replacements were referred to as "Art Series" by one of the leaders at PSV Mfg who approved my replacement and ensured I received a good tested matched pair. They do not have an ArtSeries label, they still have the MKII labeling as the prior gen had. Physically they look similar too, inside. They said different materials inside or something like this, and much better QA compared to 2021-2022 years just after the pandemic started slowing down. Take it all with a grain of salt. Yes, you are correct about Ray. I pressed them about it at PSVANE, they have a spec requirement to meet, something like "Top5% tested, close tolerances per pair" etc, apparently get the Ray’s tubes label on them and shipped out as Ray Tubes. Is it worth it, I don’t know, these replacements of former TII MKIIs aka ArtSeries are nice, if they last. I have not heard Horizons yet. I read they are more open, detailed. Im working with a friend who has old PSVANE KT88s in his upgraded Jolida amp, and they have started going out, same time from 2021-2022, and now he might go for the Horizons next, and thought it might be worth a try for him. No clue yet on Horizons so best not to take any recommendation from me on Horizons as I have not hands-on with them, not yet. Maybe a set of 6SN7s down the road of Horizons. We’ll see, still running these replacements to see how they do over the next year+. |
CV181: No issues with the replacement CV181 tubes now over the first 45 days or so. I sent a thank you note to PSVANE for replacing the older tubes. KT88s: This weekend, I helped a friend replace his 3-year older gold PSVANE KT88s with a quad of the newer PSVANE Horizon Series KT88 power output tubes in his integrated amplifier. These came from China through the Amazon store, before price bump, just days before. They had to honor the former price since he bought them soon enough. As to what happens now on pricing, with tariffs, no clue yet. Yes - they are a little more detailed and transparent compared to other prior KT88s. Yes - texture is there, not as dulled over as the prior versions 2-3 years ago. Biasing - was more consistent after 3 hours of play. Had to bias up a little on two of four tubes, then things settled down. After 8 hours of play, bias started to stabilize. Now my friend will run the Horizons over the next 30 days keeping an eye on bias, and how they sound. Thought it would be best to try the newer versions vs trying to replace only two of four on the older versions now sort of getting retired, I guess.
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Was at a friends house over the weekend. He changed output tubes in his integrated tube amps from the older version PSVANE MKII 6SN7 / CV181 style tube to the newer and lower cost "Horizon" series. They are more neutral, more detailed, and not the same smoothed over midrange bloom from the older style MKIIs with the grayed out bottles; both are nice in different ways, so it depends on what type of sound you are looking for. Its good to have options. |
