Disappointment with a Psvane order....

[HedgeHog]

Ordered mine from overseas as GF charged quite a bit more. This seller is on eBay as well as on AudioAsylum. Both worked and came in the gift box with test certificate.

[Jerome W]

After returning the quad set with the faulty tube, I have been informed by Rachel at Grant Fidelity that a new set was ready to be shipped, with improved bases and reliability. I said that since I ordered 2 quads, I would prefer to have them matched so I now have to return the other quad !

[The Attorney]

Hi Jerome

How are you getting on with your replacements?

I'm not going to touch my originals in my BHSE amp - they are going to stay there until they fail. Because I have no Plan B for replacements: I'm not prepared to take a step down in SQ, and I don't want to spend the time, effort and cost of going the NOS route. So the only thing left for me is... another set of Psvane PH's.

[Jerome W]

Got them 4 days ago.

So far so good in the Snappers.
They sound very transparent and punchy.
But I would not say now that there is a night and day difference with my Tung Sol's.
Time will tell with break in process.

[The Attorney]

FWIW, my PH's yoyo'd all over the place during the first 50 hours or so. Once they had settled down and I had got used to a consistent sound, I swapped back in the Treasures. Up to that point, based on memory of the Treasure's sound, I expected it to be a close call, with maybe the PH's better on midrange and the Treasures with more bass weight. But as soon as the Treasures went back in, I realised that the PH's were unquestionably superior. Of course, YMMV.

[Jerome W]

Ok, my second set seems to function properly but they sound clearly aggressive.
The only source that could be tolerated with them was my ultra sweet MR77 tuner. The MDA and the Verdier lost all their charm. Of course the tubes have only about 20 hours of use so they are far from being broken in but I'm feeling pessimistic about them. the gap to fill to be "musical" tubes is really huge. My Tung Sol EL34B are much much better and cost half the price of those replicas.
I will see if they improve with time but for now I would clearly not recommend them.

[The Attorney]

It just goes to show that... well, it just goes to show.
Maybe the "build improvements" have inadvertantly messed up the sound? Of all the laws of physics, the most applicable one to hi-fi is the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Or maybe your burn-in period was worse than mine? I temporarily noticed an upper-mid forwardness, but never aggressive.

Or maybe there is still a large sample variation? Whatever, mine are staying until they wear out - and I still have no Plan B.

[sanji]

Roger Modjesky is one if the few people who truly does a comprehensive testing of tubes. His tubes are available through the tubeaudiostore.com highly recommended.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by The Attorney

It just goes to show that... well, it just goes to show.
Maybe the "build improvements" have inadvertantly messed up the sound? Of all the laws of physics, the most applicable one to hi-fi is the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Or maybe your burn-in period was worse than mine? I temporarily noticed an upper-mid forwardness, but never aggressive.

Or maybe there is still a large sample variation? Whatever, mine are staying until they wear out - and I still have no Plan B.

Well, I must be around 40 hours now and clearly the sound has improved. Still not settled down : the bias is not constant.
The harshness vanished but they are not as sweet as usual EL34's. Very punchy. Well defined sound. For the moment it seems to me that I am listening to a KT88 amp.
If sweetness arrives, then those tubes may be very very interesting.

[2fastdriving]

My psvanes took about 100 hours to settle in and lose their harshness, I believe. They are very good now. I don't know if they are that much better than my GLs but they definitely "sweet" sounding on vocals.