Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

Owned a new pair of LE 6SN7 and compared them to many of the better old stock 6SN7 family of tubes from the 40’s - 70’s.  Old stock tubes have always sounded superior to the LE 6sn7’s and other new construction 6SN7’s until I recently bought a pair of Sophia 6SN7 Blue Glass on a recommendation from a well respected friend.  I have never been a fan of Sophia tubes prior  but I am a fan of their 6SN7’s now!  

The initial trialling period is deferred until near the end of March, lets see if a pair oof Blue Glass Sophia is able to be added to the list of '7s.  

@pindac Funny you brought back this thread.

In the beginning of Feb. I took ownership of the Aero DAC. It came with GE 12sn7s NOS. I had the Wiim Ultra as my streamer which has REW/EQ & after a few days I did a sweep to get the Aero to jive. Prio delivery of the DAC I purchased a set of Global Es. Having them in my Pre since 2022 & still lovin them. The GE were dialed in to my liking, so I left them in a week. The LinLai Global Es were sitting on the shelf next to my new DAC & were calling me to give them a chance to flex their muscles (LOL) I swapped out the GEs & gave them a few days to warm up. With no REW, they had that LINLAI sound that I love. After a few days later I did the REW sweep on the Wiim. The GEs went into the stash box.

Last week I took ownership of an Innuos Pulsar (used).  Not crazy about the house sound of the Pulsar with the Aero/LINLAI tubes, I started a week of rolling to get everything to jive. After many rolls with NOS tubes, I settled for my K/R  chrome tops. After a few hrs, I noticed my foot was tappin with my new toys! The Globals will have to stay in my stash if I ever have a tube failure in my Pre.

I've been criticized from a member here on another thread (audiogon) on swapping tubes. I guess he has solid state equipment with tone controls & can't feel the LOVE of tube swapping.

Happy listening! Dan    

It’s great to hear from you guys. The Blue glass Sophia have always intrigued me. I will be interested to see how they stack up.  
       The Linlai’s are still in play here. I really haven’t been pressed with having to switch them out. I’m still pleased with what they bring to the table. I believe I’m at about 1500-2000 hours.  Unfortunately,I stopped logging usage a while back. 

I guess the Linlai gods must not be looking favorably on me.  I have tried the E-6ns7 Black Globes 4 times in 2 different components.  Out of the 4 pairs, one tube in 3 of the pairs has either been bad out of the box or failed shortly after initial installation. The 1 pair that has not failed is over 6 months old with about 1500 hrs. so fingers crossed   It’s really too bad because the tubes sound very good and better than many vintage types that I have tried.  The new PSvane Summit sound even better imo but unfortunately I have experienced the same failure rate.