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Best 845 tube out there?

I am running a pair of Cary CAD-211AE monoblocks with the standard no-name Chinese tubes shipped by Cary. Whilst I am happy with the sound, I think I should buy a pair of 845's to keep as backup in case something happens to these tubes.

Because I will need to buy FOUR of them, this rules out any tube that sells for stupid money (e.g. vintage RCA 845 tubes).

The only current production 845's I am aware of are:

- Shuguang 845 "standard"
- Shuguang 845B
- Shuguang 845C
- Shuguang PSVANE 845
- KR Audio 845

I have found reviews of the Shuguang 845B and 845C, but there is virtually no information out there on the new Shuguang "psvane" 845. Has anybody heard this valve, and is it a noticable improvement over the 845B and C? Also, what do people think of the KR?
amfibius
ecll80's avatar
ecll80
10 posts
 
Received my WE845 Shuguang tubes.
They do not sound anything special so far, indeed one was broken right out of the box ! I was so disappointed...
The seller will send me another pair, though he admitted he did not take care enough about the packaging.
fourlegs
4 posts
 
@ecll80 I also ordered a pair of Shuguang WE845 recently and they also arrived broken. Mine had broken glass at the top of the tube just where there is a glass spacer.

Personally I do not think it was a packing problem with mine and it looks more like a design defect because the glass spacer causes a pressure point on the tube outer glass. One of the tubes was properly broken there and the other one has a stress crack there and was ready to break, probably when the tube heated up.

I have previously always used Psvane WE845 (which I really like) but wanted to try the Shuguang version because of the ever increasing cost of the Psvane WE845.
parsons's avatar
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parsons
149 posts
 
Thanks for the posts on the Shuguangs...sorry for both of your luck there...that's frustrating on both counts.
ecll80's avatar
ecll80
10 posts
 
Mine was broken at the same place ie on the top near the vertical spacer. It could indeed be that it was broken well before the package because the flash was white ie it looks it had faded since a long time. (forgive my miserable English :)


t_ramey
632 posts
 
@parsons  Please chime in when you get the Psvane WE845’s and have a chance to try them in the Melody. I got a pair of the cheaper standard 845’s from Shuguang and thought they sounded great until today they started to crap out on me. So back to the 845b’s for now. 
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