Disappointment with a Psvane order....

[antipop]

Jerome, I'm resurrecting the thread as I'm listening to the tube you've lent me.

So far, I like what I hear. The bass is more punchy, more clean with a lot of details I'm the highs. Soundstage has gotten better as well. Those are very dynamic tubes and they remind me of the sound I heard when I tried the Accuphase A65.

I'm actually having a hard time typing as I'm attracted by the music. Let's see if the impression remains.

Ps I think I'm going to get hooked on tube rolling soon.

[Jerome W]

Hey Georges : let's hope it will continue this way.

I agree they are extremely punchy and dynamics.
At times, on the Wilson's the sound became aggressive. May be better suited to SF speakers !

[The Attorney]

Punchy and Dynamic I agree with. Aggressive? No way in my application - the treble is most refined and the midrange is very clear and life-like, but it could be that there is a particular synergy between the PH and BHSE, which doesn't transfer well to other combinations. The BHSE is designed such that tube characteristics should have minimal impact on SQ, so it may show up tube characteristics differently to other amps.

Back to quality control: Subsequent to the problems I mentioned before, one of my PH's did fail completely, so I took the whole set out. I tried for weeks to live with either the Treasures or JJs, but missed the PH sound so much that I ordered another quad - this time from GF, so hopefully reliability will be better this time - so far so good in the first few hours.

[magoo]

Originally Posted by antipop

Jerome, I'm resurrecting the thread as I'm listening to the tube you've lent me.

So far, I like what I hear. The bass is more punchy, more clean with a lot of details I'm the highs. Soundstage has gotten better as well. Those are very dynamic tubes and they remind me of the sound I heard when I tried the Accuphase A65.

I'm actually having a hard time typing as I'm attracted by the music. Let's see if the impression remains.

Ps I think I'm going to get hooked on tube rolling soon.

I've just ordered a pair of Psvane 12AT7's for the Snappers, it arrived with Seimens ECC801s fitted, which are great, but pricey to replace. Also tried a pair of Mullards in there, lovely warmer sound, but my examples at least were extremely noisy and have been removed. I would dearly love to try the EL34's too, but the asking price is just too rich for me just now. Will report in a week or so when they arrive

Tube rolling is both fun & addictive, but the 4 Psvane 12AU7's that went into my Cary pre have stayed put!

[magoo]

Well after a long slow journey, they arrived - in fairness they sounded great, incredibly detailed. But they have rapidly gone downhill, after a couple of days they started making a horrid rushy noise when I powered down the Snappers, and when I dared to power back up, the rushing noise had become a constant, at all volumes .....back to the original Siemens again!

The Psvane 12AU7's in my Cary pre seem absolutely fine, so I do believe Psvane can make a decent tube, but boy does the quality control need to improve. Shame, as when they're good, they seem excellent, but I'd avoid personally!

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by magoo

Well after a long slow journey, they arrived - in fairness they sounded great, incredibly detailed. But they have rapidly gone downhill, after a couple of days they started making a horrid rushy noise when I powered down the Snappers, and when I dared to power back up, the rushing noise had become a constant, at all volumes .....back to the original Siemens again!

The Psvane 12AU7's in my Cary pre seem absolutely fine, so I do believe Psvane can make a decent tube, but boy does the quality control need to improve. Shame, as when they're good, they seem excellent, but I'd avoid personally!

Matt,
I will never ever buy anymore tubes from them.
I am going to measure them and will ask for a complete refund ( which of course they will refuse ) if some tubes are bad after only 30 hours.
They are not cheap so I would expect better quality. I just lost 800 dollars for these 8 EL34's plus the shipping cost of returning them....

[antipop]

Matt, same experience here.

When I first tried them I wondered what Jerome was thinking as they sounded awesome. But after a few days, they were time where they soured average and worse one died and took out the fuse on the Snapper.

I wouldn't trust them anymore and they should be avoided.

[zadfrak]

I bought some that were slightly used--in the 150 hour range. Black bottle EL34. I thought that would take away that early dnger factor with them being broken in somewhat.

Application is a CJ premeir 4. It runs the mid-range in a bi-amped system. So I needed 2 matched quad sets. They replaced a tried and true goodie---vintage winged C's.

Every time I looked, those winged C's had jumped up again in price. Buying 8 and not 2 changes things.

I took the amp in to have it looked over and re-biased properly and tuned up, if you will. I've got another 150 hours or so on them.

Initial thoughts are they are a little better than the winged C. Definately a little clearer on the top end. mids are close to the same, biggest difference so far would be say that 3rd harmonizing voice coming in clearer. And it seems to really take to female vocalists. I guess that's where the new sweet spot is.

It's real hard to beat those vintage winged c's by much, isn't it? What a tube.

But I do think they are a valid alternative to the vintage winged C for similar costs. I just pulled the trigger and tried something new.

They are also a lot bigger physically than the Winged C's. Now there is plenty of room for them in a CJ, but other brands of amplifiers may not have the room for them. They are big. A photo doesn't do justice and you need another tube by it for scale.

But I had been through a bunch of other EL34 through the years in that amp and all the one's from Russia. I guess the gold lions were the best of all those tried and used, but 2 of the 8 failed after awhile and that to me is a failure rate a little too high.


By the way, changing the 5751 tubes in that amp within the next 2 weeks.Hopefully, I have pegged the psvane black bottles accurately and can now add another variable in the mix. I know CJ likes the Sylvania 5751. I got some 50's matched pair sylvannia's with that long plate.

I'm thinking and hoping that works well w/ the psvane power tubes.

[antipop]

By the way, I tries them again since I put the P5 I was curious to see if a more stable power would be the solution.

It was excellent ... For 2 weeks, then another fuse went off. I've been back on the winged C and it's been smooth sailing since.

[The Attorney]

One of my EL34PHs from the second set recently failed in exactly the same way as the first set, so Grant Fidelity's extra testing is no guarantee of better reliability. I don't think GF are at fault in this, but I do think that Psvane have got something badly wrong with the quality of this model, so I've finally given up on the PHs despite them still sounding great in my BHSE.