admin – Premium Vacuum Tubes

Price Matching Policy

At customers’ request, we have updated our Price Matching Policy (PMP) as below as of March 10th, 2025:

We only match price to reputable & verifiable, authorized vendors located in the USA, Canada and Europe for offers provided on these vendors’ own websites or forums administrated by the specific vendor.

2. We do NOT match price to any vendors located in Greater China region no matter which platform they are selling from. These vendors tend to be ‘flash’ vendors as China allow them to be registered with minimal verification and such vendors can walk away from vendor responsibilities easily by closing down one account and register another one to hide away from negative feedback.

3. We do NOT match price to vendors on AliExpress, Temu & Amazon – many vendors on these platforms are ‘disguised’ vendors from Greater China but appear to be ‘local’ vendors located in western countries. For reasons listed above under 2), such disguised vendors may shortcut after-sale support and bait customers with initial low price without real commitment.

4. When asking for a price match from us, please provide the price matching link that is current and live on Google search. Historical pricing on google archives or past web screenshot cannot be matched due to market condition / exchange rate / factory cost changes.

5. When comparing price, please take into account of all costs prior to delivery – including item price, shipping (initial and potential warranty return), import duty tariff and any applicable taxes.

6. We reserve the right to decline any price match request. Price matching is not a blanket guarantee from us. It is reviewed and approved on case by case basis.

Thank you.

Grant Fidelity

Support Canadians – We rebate 5% GST plus reduce exchange rate, effective immediately

With Trump tariffs that impact every Canadian from daily grocery items to personal hobby purchases, we understand that when coming to household expenses vs audiophile hobby expenses, the former will take priority.

To support Canadian audiophiles, Grant Fidelity will offer the following effective immediately:

When a customer uses Interact E-Transfer as payment method, we provide 5% GST rebate to your order amount instantly during checkout.

We have lowered our website USD/CAD exchange rate from retail banking exchange rate to mid-market exchange rate (which is lower than retail banking exchange rate offered by major Canadian banks), to further help our Canadian customers to lower purchase price.

Happy Tube Shopping, Canadians!

Grant Fidelity

We cover USA tariffs for USA bound orders

With worldwide uncertainties taking media headlines each day, it is not surprised for our valued USA customers to wonder: Will my tube order from a business in Canada, with goods produced in China, be taxed for new tariffs and fees, and how much the extra charges will be???

We will take out the uncertainty for our valued USA customers for the new tariffs taking into effects:

Starting immediately as of March 1st, 2025, Grant Fidelity will cover the tariffs for USA destination orders. As a customer, you won’t feel any difference in your total amount spent when you place tube orders with us compared to pre-Trump administration time.

How do we cover the tariffs?

For all Express air shipping orders to the USA: we will have DHL Express to bill duty tax tariffs to us directly in Canada. Customers won’t see a bill at the time of the delivery and delivery will not be slowed due to waiting for tariffs payment in the USA.

For all expedited ground shipping orders (by USPS delivery) to the USA: USPS doesn’t provide direct billing to senders outside of the USA, but customers can pay the import charges to USPS first to receive delivery. Then within 3 business days upon delivery, please submit your USPS import charges billing to us for reimbursement by 1) taking a clear picture showing all billing details in .jpg file, or 2) send bill by .pdf file attachment. Upon receiving the bill and verification, we will issue refund of the paid amount to your order payment method within 48 hours.

Please note for any cancelled orders / returned orders initiated by the customer, the tariff payment / reimbursement will be deducted from your order refund. This is to avoid uncommitted purchasers to take advantage of the policy and be fair across the board to all committed purchasers.

Happy tube shopping the same as in the pre-tariff days!

Grant Fidelity

Linlai Global E-845 vs. Psvane ACME 845: ‘almost immediately sense the superiority of the Elites’

Received from customer James H. via email:

“When looking for a review of the Linlai Elite E-845, I could not find anyone who was able to compare it to the Psvane Acme 845, which is the tube’s nearest competitor….

I have the Line Magnetic 845 Premium which uses a pair of 845’s & 300B’s. I will say that the Linlai (Global) Elite E-845s have taken a very long time to sound good for me. It took about 75 hours for me to begin to like them. I do like them quite a bit now after about 100 hours.

I also have a pair of Psvane Acme 845s… which will be up for sale very soon. I did not really have to A/B the Acme’s with the Elite’s to almost immediately sense the superiority of the Elites. The Acme’s were veiled, cloudy, dark, reticent, and very much stuck in the speaker box compared to the Linlai Elite E-845s which have the opposite traits. The Linlai Elite E-845s are just in an altogether different league than the Psvane Acme 845s.

Frequent Order Tracking Questions – Read before email

Here are answers to the frequently asked order tracking questions – please read it before using ‘contact us’ form to send email. It may have answered your question and save you time to write emails!

Order placed – when will the order be shipped?

Answer: Typically within 48 hours (2 business days, excluding weekends and holidays that our business location – Alberta, Canada, observes locally). If for some reason your order cannot be shipped within that time frame, you will receive an email from us with details.

2. Can you send me tracking number once order is shipped？

Answer: All order shipping updates are done automatically to our online webstore order system. Please use your email (the one you used to place order) to login your account to see most up-to-date updates. If you didn’t register an account at the time of order, you can register it now with your same email. The website will send you a password automatically for you to login. You can change the default password if you wish after you login.

3. Why I didn’t receive the account login credentials email or any order updates?

Answer: The most common reasons are – Reason #1: you might have a typo in your email address when you register your account so the emails cannot be delivered. Simply register a new account with your correct email again. Reason #2: your email server blocked our email as spam. It is common these days that email server blocks out automatic emails. Please add grantfidelity at gmail dot com in your email contact list and mark us as a ‘safe sender’. Reason #3: For those using gmail, automatic emails are often routed to sub-folders in your inbox or Spam folder – Inbox subfolders are called ‘Promotions’ or ‘Social’ or ‘Updates’. You can find those Gmail inbox tabs in horizontal in your gmail inbox top header. Be sure to check your spam folder too, and add us to your safe sender contact list.

Ship to Europe Pilot Program: Import Charges Prepaid by us!

In response to European customers request while they seek top quality vacuum tubes, we are starting a pilot program for shipping to selected European countries with Import Charges Prepaid, as of Feb 1st, 2024.

Terms and Conditions:

First set currency to EUR

To participate the ‘EUR – Import Charges Prepaid’ pilot program, you MUST first set purchase currency to EUR from the website currency selection dropdown list. If you see the webstore pricing changed to EUR pricing, your country is currently included in the pilot program.

Placing orders with pricing in currencies other than EUR (such as USD or CAD) do NOT qualify for ‘Import Charges Prepaid’ pilot program to European countries. If you prefer to handle import tax process yourself at the receiving end, you can still place order in USD currency. In this case, you must pay all import charges to your countries’ tax authority directly at the time of import & delivery, at your own extra expenses.

2. Prepaid Import Charges are quoted by DHL portal

The Euro currency price shown on our website has been calculated to include Import Charges such as duty, tax and customs processing fees to major western European countries, as per estimates provided through DHL Express International shipping portal. If your country has other special levy for imported goods not included in DHL portal quotation we have received, it is not included in our website quoted price (this might be the case of some Eastern European countries) and such levy must be paid by the buyer once we present you the customs invoice we receive from your country.

Important Notes: When your order is shipped with Duty and Tax Prepaid by the sender (that is us), if DHL in your country requires any documents for customs clearance, please forward the request by email to us – our email is the order confirmation email you received from. Please do NOT provide documents from your side to DHL without confirming with us first, in order to avoid customs confusion on tax & duty assessment resulting in double taxing.

3. Use DHL Express shipping for smooth delivery experience

We ask ALL European customers who wish to use the ‘Import Charges Prepaid’ pilot program to use DHL Express shipping option. We engage DHL Express as import broker to bill and collect import charges from OUR shipping account. This can greatly speed up delivery process.

If for some reason such as missing paperwork, DHL still requests you to make certain fee payment before they can deliver the shipment to you (yes sometimes DHL processing errors do happen), you can make payment promptly first so that you can receive delivery right away. You must request and keep your ‘import charges’ invoice / receipt from DHL, scan them as picture or .pdf files, then send them to us via email for your fee refund. Please note the refundable import charges is between the actual charges and maximum UP TO 20% of the item value in your order, excluding any insurance and shipping freight charges in the order.

Special note about Germany as destination country: Due to Germany’s new tax regulation requesting overseas suppliers to register German VAT ID and file annually when offering international shipment with ‘Duty and Tax Prepaid by seller’, we as a foreign business (outside of EU with limited volume of business to Germany) have decided not to proceed to take on such extra administration burdens from our end, hence NO ‘DUTY AND TAX PREPAID’ option is available for German orders. German customers can still place order with us at our web price WITHOUT VAT. Your German VAT and other relevant import fees levied by German customs will be collected by the shipping carrier (for example: Post Office or DHL Express) directly from the receiver (that is the customer located in Germany) prior to shipment delivery.

4. Postal office parcel shipping option doesn’t work for ‘Import Charges Prepaid’

If you opt to use Postal Service during checkout for your order (ie. the cheaper shipping option), please place order in USD currency which excludes any import charges in the pricing. The carrier (Postal Service) in your country CANNOT and WILL NOT bill import charges back to sender (that is us in Canada outside of your country). You may have to line up at your local postal office service counter to pay in person or pay online for your country’s import charges out of your pocket, prior to taking Postal Office international parcel delivery.

If you used PayPal or Credit card (processed by Stripe) as payment method to pay an order in Euro currency, your Euro funds paid to us were automatically converted to US Dollars when PayPal or Stripe releasing funds to us at the time of your order (we do NOT receive Euro funds to our banks from these card payment processors). In an event of processing refund, keep in mind that we can only refund the US currency equivalent Euro amount at the time of refund. There may be a small shortfall to you, due to exchange currency charges by financial intermediaries and due to unexpected international exchange fluctuations – we have no way to claim these charges back so they will have to be born by the buyer in the order.

5. Pilot program maybe subject to change or cancellation without notice, but all orders will be honored

Due to the complexity of regulations in multiple European countries, this Import Charges Prepaid Pilot program may be subject to change or cancellation. The success of the program relies on the accuracy by DHL shipping portal, and destination country’s policy stability over long term.

Please be rest assured that if your order was placed with ‘Import Charges Prepaid’ with us and payment completed, we will honor the program terms and conditions, even if the Pilot program is cancelled before your shipment delivery.

We hope the above pilot program will allow our European customers to have better understanding of the total cost to expect when placing tube order with us in Canada!

Happy tube rolling and happy listening!

Grant Fidelity – Premium Vacuum Tubes

Treasure 6SN7SE Globe: ‘I got the chills from this thing’

Feedback received from customer Noah via email:

“Hey there, I just received a Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE

I dropped it in my (Schiit) LYR+ / BIFROST and I’ve been listening to it on my (Sennheiser) HD800S. This thing is mind blowing – thanks for selling such a great tube in Canada.

I got the chills from this thing. It completely evens out the tone of these headphones while still keeping a massive soundstage. I have been using them for every genre and it all sounds good, as long as it was mastered well. I’m going to have to get more spares . . . “

Push pull amplifier – tube troubleshooting

Below are procedures that customer needs to complete to identify faulty tube, before submitting a warranty request:

For Push Pull tube amps – 2 power tubes (either EL34 or KT88 – these are the most commonly used power tubes in push pull amps are used per channel. You may also see 2*300B or 2*845 type power tubes in recent years’ design) Total 4 tubes are used for two channels together.
If your amp is making abnormal noise such as loud static noises or obvious humming etc, you need to identify exactly which channel (left or right) have problem, and exactly which tube is causing the problem.
As amplifiers are of stereo channel – i.e. 2 channels symmetrically, a simple way to identify a faulty tube is ‘divide, swap and confirm’.
Split 4 tubes to 2 groups first, then only install 2 tubes (Group #1) in left channel and use your two previous known good tubes in the right channel. Turn on the amp and see if problem presents in left channel that you installed the new tubes (Group #1) . If No, go to step 6. If Yes, go to step 5.
Split the 2 tubes and install one in EACH channel (in two symmetric sockets in left and right channel), and split your two previous known good tubes in the other two symmetric sockets in left and right channel. (Do not worry about ‘blending’ your new tube and previous tube in one channel in this troubleshooting process.) Identify which channel (left or right) presents problem – the tube in the problematic channel is the faulty tube.
Since you didn’t find problem in step 4 with 2 tubes (Group #1), now use your other 2 tubes (Group #2) and repeat the same process in Step 4. The tube in the problematic channel is the faulty tube.
If you found more than one tube is of problem in the troubleshooting process, identify EACH tube’s problem and describe THE PROBLEM SEPARATELY on a piece of paper, along with that tube’s serial number (if the tube has a serial number on the base, or on the metal tag inside the tube).
Now take a CLEAR & HIGH RESOLUTION picture of the tube and the paper (showing the problem message you have written down) together. You need to submit this picture when contacting us to file for factory warranty claim.
Wrap this piece of paper containing the information to the corresponding tube and attach it with an elastic ribbon and have it ready for shipping. DO NOT USE ANY MARKER TO WRITE ON THE TUBE ITSELF.
Contact us via email to file factory warranty claim – Please provide ALL information you feel pertinent about the tube problem, including but not limited to: your amp make and model, describe the event of tube problem you have experienced, and if using an entirely different set of tubes resolved ALL problems. If problems still exist when using other tubes – chances are that your amp might need a check-up by amplifier service technician before you use a new set of tubes again in the amp. A problematic amplifier can damage a perfectly fine set of tubes, and this will not be covered by tube factory’s warranty.
Once your email is received by us, we will reply you within 48 hours about warranty return shipping instruction. There is NO NEED to ship known good tubes back to us – extra shipping and handling can easily damage fragile but perfectly good tubes. Only ship known faulty tube for warranty process, unless we instruct otherwise.

We appreciate you take the time to isolate the problem. Refusing to conduct the troubleshooting process will not move your warranty process forward – not all tube problem can be reproduced in the lab testing equipment, if it is intermittent only. We need customers to work with us to quickly have your tube problem resolved under factory’s tube warranty policy. It is a team work between buyer and seller.

Thank you.

Grant Fidelity

‘Treasure 6SN7-SE GF Special Edition’ – ‘better than ANY tubes I have ever used!’

Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE (pair or single, GF Limited Special Edition)

Mark S. acquired a pair of Grant Fidelity special edition Treasure 6SN7SE top grade with us recently for his Moon Audio Dragon Inspire IHA-1 Tube Headphone Amp. Below is his feedback via email. We hope this will help other headphone amp owners when choosing upgrade 6SN7 tubes!

“Rachel,

Bless your heart! My order of the Globe 6SN7 tubes arrived in just 3 days! _{(seller note: Mark ordered our Express shipping upgrade for extra cost)}

I realize that there is a break in period for the tubes, but they are already better than ANY tubes I have ever used!

For the first time, my amp has ZERO noise with headphones! I can’t believe it. Also, I have never heard the sound so incredible as it sounds with these tubes!

Thank you so much for your great service and the best tubes I have ever heard!

Very best regards,

Mark”

A floating piece of glass inside the tube – What is it?

If you have been playing with vacuum tubes long enough, you might have run into a situation that a new tube, shipped from a vendor, arrived with a piece of floating glass inside (see reference picture below). What is it? Where does it come from? Is the tube damaged beyond useful?

Here is the answer:

This piece of floating glass is a broken-off piece from the tube filament glass stem. See picture below showing where it is exactly broken off from.

2. This broken piece is often resulted from the heavy filament structure in vibrating motion during shipping and handling. However, since the tube glass stem is a wide structure supporting the full filament structure – a small piece

broken off from the tip won’t hurt the tube structure’s integrity at all.

3. We see this ‘floating glass’ from TJ Full Music 300B tubes, but not much from other Chinese brand such as Shuguang 300B tubes produced in southern China. Our guess is that the glass supplier for Full Music (located in Northern China) is likely different and glass production technique isn’t exactly the same.

4. This piece of floating glass won’t affect tube function at all and won’t interfere with the vacuum capacity inside the tube. Glass is non-conductive. User only needs to stand the tube up, let the floating piece to fall to the bottom of the tube enclosure, plug the tube into socket vertically, then it is all done!