No sugar coating.
One thing I'm learning about these small PSVANE tubes is they do seem to let the top end frequencies through a bit more (more than some vintage tubes do) and its more noticeable with more transparent interconnect cables, for sure. They are not bright, just a little more vivid in some ways. Bass is good, full, controlled, not slow or mushy.
If the recording you are listening to is good, the goodness comes through nicely. If the recording is bad, the baby PSVANEs are just passing it through, no added rounding nor leading edge filtering going on. Also noticed the sound stage is a little bigger with these PSVANE 12AU7, 12AT7 than my best vintage "Blackburn" Mullard's. It's nice how they do sort of have their own signature top-to bottom. I noticed Guitars are not overly lush, nice and clean, maybe more accurate in some ways - but not overly edgy or harsh or grainy in any way. Clear with a tad of glistening texture on strings is how I keep thinking it sounds now. Perhaps its a surprise how some of the subtle details come through.
Will they fully replace my best vintage, no. Are they close, or better in some ways, yes. 95% there, yeah, maybe. They are not a compromise really. Have not pulled them yet!
Not sure if that's what some of you already concluded. Thanks for feedback and contributions to this thread. :)
