Category: Reviews by Tube Model

Hear what the cable pro said about [Linlai™ Global] E-845….. ‘real keepers!’

Posted adminPosted in Recent News, Purchase Guide, - 845 all types

Eric D. from France is an industry pro specialized in ultra high end cabling. His audition skills are professional and field proven, and here is what he said about after owning a pair of [Linlai™ Global] E-845 top grade tubes:

“The Linlai E-845s are very nicely built. You can tell by looking inside
the glass tube that they are manufactured with care. When brand new,
they performed nicely, but it was after about 120 to 150 hours that they
really came alive. They really need that burn-in time to reveal their
full potential. I’m not the patient type, but this time I was glad I
waited.

All the qualities the best 845s are renowned for are there. Let’s talk about dynamics first : a bit timid during the burn-in time, dynamics become quite exceptional after 100hrs and when tubes and amp reach their optimal operating temperature. They are extremely fast, with lots of impact and speed, speed and more speed. Extension in the bass is quite impressive and treble is exactly what you expect : not a trace of harshness but lots of details. Midrange is just exceptional, voices come alive to a point that I’ve very rarely experienced before. The timbres of acoustic instrument are very real, and that is quite obvious on violin or cello.

Soundstaging is outstanding, both in depth, width and accuracy. And there’s air between the instruments, something you can only hear when you are in the presence of real high-end gear. Pitch-black silence is another telltale sign of that.

On rock or blues, you can easily identify what guitar or amp is being played. A Strat sounds like a Strat, and there’s no mistaking a Les Paul or a Tele for anything else.

Comparing them to a pair of RCAs a friend brought around, the Linlai E-845s did at least as good as them in all fields, but they have a greater sense of immediacy, something that makes you feel more connected to the music….

Thanks a lot Rachel, those tubes are real keepers!

Cheers,

Eric”

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

Posted adminPosted in Recent News, Purchase Guide, - 300B all types

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.

LINLAI™ 845-DG: “Turned my system into the best I have ever experienced…”

Posted adminPosted in Reviews by Tube Model, - 845 all types

Feedback received from our long time customer Barry H. in Vancouver, Canada:

“I now own Space-Tech Laboratory SE-845-100W mono blocks that are single ended DHT pure class A triode OTL power amplifiers that were designed and hand built in Vancouver.  They came with Psvane 845 Hi-Fi tubes and I was very happy with the sonics. Unfortunately, the adhesive holding the base to the glass failed after a year so I went looking for replacements and found Grant Fidelity’s website where I bought a set of Psvane WE845 tubes.  They are great tubes but I couldn’t find the correct configuration of preamp tubes to make music the way I liked.  I then ordered a pair of Psvane 845-TII Black Special Edition tubes that provided the warm texture that I enjoy.

Over the last year, I have upgraded my digital front with a KT-150 based upsampling DAC, re-clocker, switch and linear power supplies to the point where I was suspecting that the Black Special 845 tubes were holding back my system’s potential.  I went back to Grant Fidelity and found the new tube manufacturer, Linlai.  My logic was that if a group of Engineers left Shuguang to form Psvane, who are now a premium manufacturer, then the group who left Psvane to form Linlai must believe they can produce products at or better than Psvane.  Rachel’s honesty about their warranty was all I needed to order the factory grade version of the Linlai 845-DG.

After the 845-DG arrived I listened to them for 2 hours and then began the burn-in process for 7 days, listening each evening for about an hour.  They did improve until the 150-hour mark to the point that I did not hear an improvement at 175 hours.  My impressions of the 845-DG vs the Psvane 845-TII (Black Special Edition) after 175 hours are:

I call them(Linlai 845-DG) 300B tubes that were fed performance enhancing drugs!  Smooth, delicate, air, no harshness and wonderful dynamics. A blacker background with a wider and deeper soundstage with clarity of all instruments.  I can discern a cedar top guitar from a maple one. Cymbals and bells float with a long decay. Bass has the articulation and warmth that I crave so, in comparison, the Psvane 845 T-II sounds like they are wrapped in a Kashmir sweater that must be smearing some details. The vibration of strings on upright bass and piano are easily heard. My addiction to snare drum rim shots is satisfied.

These 845-DG tubes have turned my system into the best I have ever experienced in my home and I couldn’t be happier. They and can lay claim to being expertly designed and built!

Barry H., Vancouver”

6SN7SE: “stunning life -live -like music. HUGE soundstage”

Posted adminPosted in Reviews by Tube Model, - 6SN7 / CV181

Feedback received via email from customer Lincoln W.:

“Hi Rachel, I thought I’d give you a preliminary feedback on the Treasure Globe 6SN7-SE.  they are simply amazing. A pair makes the entire system sound like a brand new system! stunning life -live -like music. HUGE soundstage. I’m running a DAC that already made the soundstage big, but the tubes gave it more depth, the soundstage became bigger.  lots of air, lots of presence…the music produced was jaw dropping – arms up in the air moments. and there were many!”

(note: Lincoln uses 6SN7SE in a Supratek preamplifier)

Which 6SN7SE should I get?

Posted adminPosted in 6SN7 Tube Purchase Guide, Purchase Guide, Reviews by Tube Model, - 6SN7 / CV181

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-Select 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-Select Special Edition) tubes 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

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

Posted adminPosted in Purchase Guide, - 6CA7/EL34 all types, - KT88 all types

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.