Best 845 tube out there?

I purchased a matching pair of ELROG 845 tubes and after approx. 120 hrs, one has completely failed (the glass is discoloured) and other tube has a vast amount of hum. I sent an e-mail to Klaus at ELROG of what occurred but I've yet to receive a response. I highly recommend you stay away from these tubes. I loved them at first but after a short while they started to deteriorate. At a $1000.00 US a pair, it was an expensive experiment. I'm now back to using my PSVANE 845 TII which are working fine.

Psvane is doing an excellent job at manufacturing and MARKETING their “premium” brand of tubes. Psvane, IMHO, has target the North American market due to our thirst for high quality new production tubes and especially our willingness to pay a premium for said tubes.

So why didn’t Psvane design and market a replica RCA or United 845? Because the Western Electric name has more of a premium “marketability” than either RCA or United. Western Electric never made a true 845 spec’d tube and the WE tube (WE284A) that the Psvane WE845 is supposed to be replicated from are not even close in construction. The WE284A was a metal plate whereas the Psvane WE845 has a graphite plate.

Also, if you take a close look at the Psvane WE845, there is evidence that the vacuum evacuation is performed from the top, whereas both the RCA845 and WE285A are evacuated from the bottom, so the manufacturing techniques are not even duplicated. How can these tubes be called Western Electric “Replicas”????

How many 845 tube variants does Psvane make now? Four, Five, Six?? As you go up the line, you get fancy packaging, a shinier base, and a more robust glass envelope. All marketing BS to appeal to the North American market.

I have had a (borrowed pair) of Psvane WE845 tubes in my system for 3-weeks. They are good sounding tubes, but IMHO are certainly not up to the same standard as vintage RCA, United, and the limited production run of high dissipation Super TnT metal plates. Heck, current production Cetrons will give them a run for the money.

If you want as good sound 845 tube from China, look for the lower price T-series Psvane tubes and by-pass the marketing BS and fancy boxes.

I am glad the current users of the Psvane WE845 tube are reporting excellent results, but based on my listening experience with 845 tubes, I’ll pass on the Psvane WE845 marketing clone, especially at $720/pair for a Chinese manufactured tube.

Brf,
This is a good example of individual impression variance. I've heard the Psvane W.E. Replica 845 in direct comparison to the RCA Nos 845 in Jwm's Absolare PSET amamplifier. The Psvane, marketing hype or not withstanding, was clearly superior in sound across the board. I can accept that different amplifiers can yield various outcomes. What I heard is markedly different from your account.
Charles,

Charles1dad, I agree that everyone has their own individual listening bias and there is no universal best, only a best for you. I would be very interested in Jwm’s long term listening impressions. I found the Psvane WE845 to be very dynamic with a forward presentation. Initial impression was a bit of a “wow” but the “wow” factor was supplanted by the masking of inner detail and micro dynamics. The WE845 had a too much of an” in your face” with an aggressive presentation that drew attention to itself as oppose to the music.

It was just 5-years ago when a truly evolutionary metal plate 845 tube from China only cost $375/pr. How things have changed. I’ll stick with my 1959 United 845W JAN-CUE with the getter capsule and my 1941 RCA 845.

BTW, I use the Psvane TII series 12ax7, 12au7 and CV181 tube in my preamp with excellent results.

Since 2006 on I have experimented with all Super TNT (Shuguang) 845 models; B, and all metal: M (then C), True M 100w dissipation and W premium Nobleman model.

845M is the best to my ears, now they are about 3500 hours and still strong. All the rest where fine but all failed at 30 hours or 500 hours except 845B model that I now consider are the true standard for quality and duration. But not the best sounding.

For my 211 mono amps, now I'm thinking on the WE211 to replace my broken Elrogs that costed last may '13, 2100 euros here in Europe.

Tkanks for the review Tcscata.