Coincident Linestage vs CJ CT5 or Allnic L-3000

Hi Pap,
That's the thing with high caliber SS preamps even the ultra expensive ones like the Soulution, they just cannot provide the same level of natural sound and organic liveliness. As far as I'm concerned the CSL has exceptional bass and speed as you said but always presented in the context of "natural", that is the key word. 3 dimensional space and image body-density is another strength of the higher quality tube preamps. Flesh and blood presence is more fully developed in my opinion. That the W.E. 101D replica will extend this inherent CSL attribute further is quite a feat.
Charles,

Charles - how many hours did you run the Psvanes before serious listening? What were your very initial thoughts? I'm hearing some brightness and a little less lower mid warmth at 24 hours.
Thanks,
Jordan

Jordan, I know your question was directed at Charles, but permit me to offer my observations during burn in. Straight out of the box, the PSVanes were actually somewhat similar to the Shuguangs. I did notice more air, which I suppose could present as brightness in some systems but did not in mine. At about 40 hours, the tubes began to sweeten up nicely and present with a nice improvement in midrange over the Shuguangs. At maybe 100 hours, I began to notice the system was offering much more mid-low bass authority, so that I was inclined to tweak my sub down a couple of notches.

My first reaction to the tubes was rather ho-hum, ok nice tubes, slight improvement over the Shuguangs, but nothing special. Be patient. These tubes really do need some hours.

Hi Jordan,
Pretty much +1 Brownsfan's description. Out of the box I
thought mild but noticeable improvement over the Shuguang but no brightness issues. 30-40 hours I knew these were clearly better tubes and it just continued to improve over the following days. To be honest Jordan I think they're still improving their sound quality. Listening to them right now and they just sing and make beautiful music. I imagine that in each system there are subtle burn- in pattern differences.
Charles,

Thanks Brownsfan and Charles! I'm questioning my read more than usual since I'm in the middle of a great many changes (and frustrations) in the system.

I'm burning in the Druid V's in my main system. I also received KeithR's Valvets and they promptly exposed the hum and buzz in my system. They are dead silent if I run the DAC direct to the Valvets, but if it is run through the CSL, I get a buzz/hum that is annoying from the listening seat. It is there with the Audions also, but I deliberately have lowered the gain of Audions so this hum/buzz drops in level relative to the signal. When I systematically follow the Jensen troubleshooting guide, I end up with "inductively coupled noise" as the source. Very frustrating as I've tried different cabling and adjusted cable routing away from transformers and 120 lines, but no real impact. I use a PS Audio Premier as my line source...doesn't do a thing for "inductively coupled noise", however.

So...many changes back and forth have discombobulated my aural senses. I'd like to be able to directly compare the Valvets with the Audions, but the noise issue makes it nearly impossible. Hopefully, I'll be able to resolve this noise issue soon?!!!