845 recommendations from actual experience

Which preamp are you using?

I used the Shuangung 845b with my Viva Solista. I have to say, I could'nt hear a great deal of difference between them and the basic valves that it came with.

As Casouza says, the plate voltage is very high with Viva's use of the valve. Some 845's are'nt appropriate.

If you look on Audioasylum under product reviews, one of the respondents was doing very careful reviews of the various 845 options.

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I found the Psvane 845Ts to be beautifully made.

They sounded very good.

But my Auroras simply weren't compatible. They was apparently wearing out the Psvanes.

I recently spoke with Amedeo, VIVA designer and head man, and he actually felt that the overall best performance comes from the standard Chinese 845s...
,

I have also the fantastic viva aurora mono's and changed the 3 chinese 211 driver with nos GE vtc4 and the standard chinese 845 with Tad selection with a psvane hifi series. The sound is overall greatly improved, period.
I bought also sophia 845, but not yet tested it.
I am also trying to buy a pair of elrog, but they doesn't answer my mails...
:-(
Amedeo is wrong, imho... This amp's sound even better, with better tubes,
No doubt... !!!

I don't know about your amp, but I do know about the 845 tube - first hand experience. NOS RCA and United 845 tubes are far and away the best - night and day. The Chinese are not even close. But, the Chinese are affordable and do sound okay. The Chinese Amperex styled version (845B)does sound better than the original Sino 845. So, I would recommend the 845B. I also have the non-graphite anode 845C, but have not given them a long listen yet. I plan to do that later this summer.