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:
- 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