Category: Purchase Guide

Positive Feedback review: Linlai™ Global E-300B vs. Psvane ACME300B

Review Juan C. Ayllon spent time with both tubes on his ultra high end Lampizator Big 7 Mk1 Digital to Analog Converter for ‘An Aural Indulgence‘

  • “If vacuum tubes were wine, the Linlai would be a sophisticated French red Bordeaux blend from the Left Bank of the river Garrone in Bordeaux, France, while the ACME would be a top shelf Cabernet Sauvignon from California’s Napa Valley served in posh steakhouses. 
  • Don’t get me wrong; both the Linlai E-300B and the Psvane ACME 300B render rich, well-balanced presentations, and if I were not making conscious A to B comparisons, it would be easy to miss the differences. And, either vacuum tube will deliver luxuriant listening pleasures worthy of the most discriminating audiophile, enhancing high end tube gear performance and pairing them nicely with highly resolving components like the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier or X250.8 amplifier for a spectacular aural finish…”

Read the FULL REVIEW here.

Psvane or Linlai™? … Make an informed choice

We have received so many inquires lately from customers asking us to help them to make a choice between the two tube brands out of China. So here is a summary of our take – OBJECTIVELY:

  1. Power of design:

High end product design need vision and dedication. Psvane had a track record of pumping out a few series of high end tubes for the worldwide audiophile upgrade market, since they initially launched ‘Treasure black bottle’ tube series back in 2008 till the recent ACME series.

That original Psvane design team includes the same people who left later on from Psvane to form Linlai brand. So, Psvane had proven track record. Linlai™ split out with a good number of the design / production team so they started off with good design strength too. 

Conclusion: We have absolute confidence in the late new comer Linlai™’s design ability to pump out GREAT hifi tubes. Two brands provide varieties to the market – users can choose based on their preference. 

2. Business focus:

When a business grows, they do tend to increase their offering to cover more market segments to increase revenue. Psvane indeed have taken the golden opportunity to expand and fill in the void left by Shuguang tube factory’s shutdown in 2019 due to sale of land and relocation, and Psvane has set the stage for expanding into the mass production guitar amp market, which mostly use small signal tubes and EL34/KT88/KT66 etc. Large triode tubes such as 300B/845 tubes are mostly used by HiFi market and are not the focus of the guitar amp musician market.

Shuguang now has resumed production in 2023. Psvane’s market share is being squeezed so they appear take more aggressive moves to maintain market share. However, we think the whole problem of Chinese tubes is about consistent quality. When Psvane grows to cover as wide scale as Shuguang used to be, the quality consistency might suffer. 

On the contrary, Linlai™ set itself to be a niche player focusing on HiFi market only. They do not appear to take overly aggressive moves for market share. Instead, Linlai appears to be genuinely concerns about quality. Sub-par quality or un-confirmed quality tubes are not offered for sale on their official export website [www.linlaiglobal.com] to maintain brand reputation. 

Conclusion: current Psvane tubes such as ACME series are confirmed by worldwide customers as ‘great tubes’ but quality consistency must be observed by diligent buyers . We are confident that Linlai™ will and may have caught up in the competition with their strong focus in the HiFi market. 

3. Statistics says about Quality Control:

We have randomly taken 28 tubes from each brand that we have received and plotted their plate current. Blue line is Psvane, Orange line is Linlai™. We see a less deviation from Linlai™ measurements than from Psvane.

What does this chart tell us? It says: We are indeed getting great quality Linlai™ tubes with a very consistent measurements! The Linlai™ people are really serious about their products and take our quality control parameters to action and test numbers tell it! In our opinion, those Psvane tubes with plate current less than 48 should NEVER has been released to outside of China market if they were to maintain their brand reputation in the international market. 

4. What if? – The Warranty question:

Both Psvane and Linlai offer a better warranty term than the state owned Shuguang brand used to offer. They are changing the reputation of ‘Made-in-China’ tubes.

Linlai factory backs up their [Linlai™ Global] tubes sold through their own website and their authorized overseas resellers. Buyers tempted by cheaper price and bought the Chinese version of Linlai tubes (it doesn’t have the [Linlai™ Global]) is only covered by their sellers (mostly located in Greater China). 

Conclusion: Buying [Linlai™ Global] tubes does not leave the buyer to hold the bags, when problems arise. Consistent quality means less warranty cases – it will be a better user experience. 

5. How do they compare, sonically?

We know this is the holy-grail question for audiophiles. But since this comparison is all about being ‘objectively’. We as vendor must leave this question to be answered by the audiophile community.

Objectively, we can shine some lights on Linlai™ design which will add to definite positives to the sonic performance. E-series with molybdenum material produce a much stronger electron emission than other type of plate material such as graphite or hybrid plate, and sustain higher voltage. This translates to more dynamic to the sound, better reliability and longer tube life. DG overhang filament series achieves better vibration control than other filament structures. With all these features, we trust that they are evident to well trained audiophile ears to hear the sonic improvements.

Conclusion: we have been selecting high quality tubes from China for over a decade. Our past combined experience does tell us that Linlai™ is a brand with great potential for both sonic quality and reliability – so far we have not seen a single defective tube from our 4 Linlai™ shipments, except one tube broken in handling from China to us.

We hope by sharing the above information and data, worldwide music lovers and audiophiles can be confident in making a well informed choice between the two brands. 

Keep in mind: enjoying music is a journey. It’s not a quest for the absolute best. If there were ‘absolute best’ in the audiophile world, we wouldn’t have had today’s numerous HiFi brands and mind boggling choices from worldwide brilliant HiFi creators. We simply cannot answer your questions about ‘what is the best tube to buy’. 

Happy Listening.

Rachel@ Grant Fidelity

 

Which 6SN7SE should I get?

It has come to attention that some shoppers are confused by the different ‘6SN7SE’ tubes available on the market now.

We here clarify as below:

What we offer is called ‘Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE’ (GF Limited Special Edition).

GF stands for ‘Grant Fidelity’.

Globe is the shape of the glass enclosure as most 6SN7 tubes are either straight bottle, or mini 300B shaped with a shoulder.

SE stands for Special Edition, as this model was custom made for us based on the best possible design feature and electronic specs for single ended triode (SET) tube amplification.

We contracted tube factory made the special batch for us. We screen all tubes by our QC standards, not factory’s QC, and then further graded them to ‘low noise Grade A’ and ‘driver grade B’. For those not passing these two grades by our QC standard (about 53%), we instructed factory to destroy them (this we cannot verify if done or not, or these sub-grade tubes flew out of back door to some other vendors).

All our ‘Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE’ (GF Limited special Edition) tubes have front Chinese calligraphic logo of ‘Treasure’, plus a back printed line of ‘GF Special Edition’. They are only sold from THIS website, not any other vendors directly or indirectly. Whoever claim they sourced the tubes from us and of same quality, it’s NOT true.

Psvane itself has launched 6SN7SE (clear glass globe shape, with white ceramic base), and 6SN7BE (blue glass globe shape, with white ceramic base). Both are offered under ‘HIFI series’ as varieties to entry to mid level 6SN7. These are NOT the same tube as our ‘Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE’ (GF Limited special Edition). Other tube factories in China may also offer globe shaped 6SN7 and call it ‘6SN7SE’ – they are NOT the same as our offering and have no relations to us either.

Hope the above clarifies the confusion around this SE model, and allow all shoppers to shop wisely with adequate information.

Happy Listening.

Grant Fidelity

What you should know about high voltage tubes such as 845, 211 and 805

Some precautions about using high voltage power tubes:

Unlike other vacuum tubes such as KT88 or EL34, which typically run at 450V plate voltage, high voltage power tubes such as 845, 805 and 211 run at plate voltage 900V or even higher depending on your amp design. Due to the high voltage in the circuit, biasing an 845 / 805 or 211 amp improperly may expose you to lethal high voltage causing instant death. If you haven’t owned any tube before, we recommend you to be cautious when starting with a 845 /805/211 tube amps and get yourself comfortable with maintaining such high voltage tube amps.

Always bias your amplifier by strictly following your amp manufacturer’s instructions. Do not bias the plate current over suggested reading (usually in mA) in any case. This will cause tube overheat, tube failure, shorten tube life significantly and even burn out other parts inside your amp.

High voltage tube has maximum rating of plate heat dissipation. Do not run your amp at a plate current that could cause the tube plate turn red hot (it is a cherry-ish deep red glow in a dark room. Normal tube glow is more towards orange-ish). When you start using a new tube, try it first in a room with dark light so that you can observe the plate color closely. If the plate turns red hot, turn down your amp bias immediately until the plate no longer show overheat symptom. Bias the two channel’s plate current readings to the same safe level for both tubes. It’s not recommended to have two channels biased at different level.

Plate heat dissipation (measured in watts) = plate voltage (in Volt) x plate current (in mA) / 1000

For example, if a tube amp has plate voltage of 960V on the 845 tube by design, and if the 845 tube has max plate heat dissipation rating of 75w, your maximum plate current bias reading should be 78mA. If the amp has plate voltage of 910V by design, your maximum plate current bias reading should be 82mA. It is not recommended run a tube constantly near its peak rating so ideally you should set your plate current bias at about 10-15% below the maximum. This will prolong your tube life and ensure a safe and long term enjoyment of your amp.

Although each tube amp has its designed plate voltage for tubes at a fixed input power voltage, a variation of more than 5% of your input power voltage may cause the plate voltage for tubes vary greatly (for example, swing from designed 910V to 950V or even higher). In such a case, your tube could be overheated and fail in a very short time. It’s strongly recommended to use a power conditioner properly designed for audio with your tube amp to reduce the possibility of such an accident and financial loss.

An excellent tube amp design along with poor selection of parts and poor production quality control could also cause your amp to overheat a tube and cause it fail prematurely. Always choose amplifiers made properly for your local voltage from a reputable reseller. In the past, we have seen many after-market modified Chinese tube amps which have been sold into North America with main transformers not designed for the right voltage, and cause not only inferior performance, but also tube failure or burning up components. Be very cautious when buying ‘cheap’ dual voltage tube amps from overseas.

Last but not least, never leave your tube amp unattended for extended period of time. Never leave a 845/805/211 high voltage tube amp on without anyone in the room.

We usually do not recommend people to chase so-called ‘high wattage output’ 845/211/805 amps. Some of these amps were designed to run output tubes at its marginal peak rating in order to squeeze a few extra watts – those watts you as a consumer may never actually need because most tube amps only sound excellent in their ‘sweet spot’ output ranges, that is – not too low and not too high. Allocating your funds to a pair of properly matched higher efficiency speakers to your 845/211/805 amps is a much much better bang for the buck, and it’s a much enjoyable musical experience too. Do NOT waste your money on chasing the last few watts by driving your tubes hard, instead focusing on get the BEST first few watts!

Due to the complicated feature of a tube amp’s design and user’s settings and maintenance vary greatly, tube manufacturer only warrant a vacuum tube for 90 days. If a tube has inherent manufacturer defect, it will show in the first 90 days of normal use and it will be covered by warranty. Improper usage including amp voltage not properly matched to your local power voltage, using tubes in an amp not suitable for the specific tube or set bias too high or too low, input power spikes etc will result in tube failure prematurely – such incidence will not be covered by tube manufacturer’s warranty.

6CA7-Z / KT88-Z or WE 6CA7Plus / WE KT88Plus – which one?

Answer to an inquiry from Germany – related to Unison Simply Italy:

6CA7-Z and KT88-Z were released over 10 years ago to the market as the very first high end upgrade tubes. But over years, the factory’s lack of quality screening has flooded market with mixed quality. We (Grant Fidelity) no longer carry them as the ‘selection’ cost is simply too high and performance varies too much. 


WE Plus series is the latest release before Shuguang factory went into relocation and ceased production in 2020 till further notice. From our own evaluation, the sound of this series is much better than previous Z-series (yes people do hear lots of good things about Z-series as they have been on market for 12 years with certainly more users). We selected through the entire factory stock and acquired less than 10 quads which meet our quality standard. We won’t hesitate to recommend them, simply just by the excellent test results we have seen on those we picked.


For your amp – i see the manufacturer website showing it uses EL34. It can be replaced with WE6CA7Plus no problem. I don’t see mentioning this amp can use KT88 – so please make sure your amp indeed can use KT88. If so, WEKT88Plus can be used. 


In general, KT88 gives more bass low frequency but resolution for midrange and high frequency isn’t as good as 6CA7. You can have to decide what is more important to your listening and choose accordingly. 


Hope this helps.