Category: Feedback by Tube Model

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

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”

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?

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

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. 

12AX7LS: ‘Deadly quiet, extremely dark but not in a soupy muddled way’

Feedback received from Paul via email:

“Hi Rachel,
I just want to give you an update. The tube(s) are doing well. No issues seen and I have about 10 hours on them so far.
I gotta say “wow!” these are deadly quiet, extremely dark but not in a soupy muddled way, they are still very dynamic but the silence is incredible. I am really enjoying these so far and I am sure that they will continue to develop.”