Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

Not wanting to deal with eBay and China, I bought my first pair of Linlai Elites from Grant Fidelity. Then came the tube crisis and huge price increases so I took a chance buying a pair Psvane UK's from China off eBay since they were just for the buffer stage of my Freya + which is my first tube preamp since an AR SP3 in the 70's. They are fine. One of Elites from GF went bad, so while waiting for a replacement from GF, I bought a pair of Elites from China. They came and are fine also, so two good experiences with eBay and China, who knew! Now with my replacement Elite back from GF, I've replaced the Psvane UK's and now have Elites in all positions. I didn't think it would make a huge difference having the Elites in the buffer but it did, hugely better especially in the low end both in quantity and quality and definitely worth the additional $$ and this is with only about 15 hours on the new Elites.

Also I think there is confusion about the Globes, not Global's,  sold by GF. They are not Linlai, I believe they are Shuguang iirc.

eBay dealer names upon request as I may have just gotten lucky so I can't really vouch for them.

Hi All

Came across this forum when I was researching about  Linlai E 6sn7 tubes.  There is not very much info on these tubes apart from this forum. I have gained good insights from your experiences. From the reviews thus far, the Linlais do seem like a good investment albeit with long hours of burn in.  

I just bought a Schiit Freya +. It comes with stock JJ tubes. The tubes have still not broken in yet.   With streaming, the sound is still a bit raw with sharp edges in the music. Bass is average, however the soundstage and clarity are pretty good. Its quite transparent.  Some songs seem to have some siblance though.

My Freya runs into an XTZ A2-300 power amp. For streaming I use Node 2i. My CD player is a Marantz 7007. With my CD player, the sound seems too recessed, warmer but  with a loss od details. Overall its  not good at all. Total lack of bass.  Strange cause the Marantz 7007 is quite a good unit.  Streaming wise, the stock tubes sounds raw as explained. My speakers are Klipsch RP 6000f, very easy to drive and quite forward in its presentation.

I am considering the Linlai E 6sn7 for the gain stage of my Freya + and Sylvania GTA or GTB  (blackbase chrome tops, green letterings ) for my  buffer stage of the preamp. Do you think this will be a significant upgrade? Will the Linlais match Sylvanias? Or should I match the Linlais with my current JJ tubes. The third option is to wait for the stock JJ tubes to break in ( not sure what the sound signature of JJ tubes are after breaking in).  Many of you have a lot of experience here and I really appreciate your views.

OK here goes; The 4 tubes came today & I let them burn in about an hour. They definitely didn't sound like the tubes that @bugredmachine sent me. To me the sounded a little stronger then my Psvane  MKll that are in my pre now.

There is no difference between Linlai and Linlai Global. They are the same. Linlai Global is what you get when you buy direct from China. For whatever reason they decided to use a different brand for the export market. 

Our Linlais do indeed have the serial number stamp on a plate inside of the tube.

The E-6SN7 is an incredible tube and we hope that they conitnue to expand their line. 

Every single tube that we sell is genuine and we go through great lengths to ensure this. Though, I haven't ever seen a fake new production tube. Ever. There are fake vintage tubes floating around which is where the myth came from.

It's particularly silly when talking about the E-6SN7. I am unaware of a globe style 6SN7 ever existing previously, and such a tube was never even made back in the day. There isn't a tube to even fake.

There are only a few factories in the world that produce tubes. Do you really think the manufacturers would silk-screen a competitor's brand onto their own product?

If someone does have an example of a fake new production tube I would love to hear about it. 

@vivatubes ...The E-6SN7 is an incredible tube and we hope that they conitnue to expand their line. Every single tube that we sell is genuine and we go through great lengths to ensure this...

What is your testing process and procedure before sending them out to customers?