OK... I almost left this discussion as it seemed to take on a new life on amps, preamps, upgrades and the like. However, I guess sometimes things go that way naturally... In my opinion, it's better to start a new thread so others can tie-in to that and comment/learn. That said...
I have about 250-hours on the LinLai Permaloy 300-B's and they have opened up nicely. While they sounded good right out of the box, They seemed a bit edgy in the treble area to start out. Now, they have in a word, blossomed... The treble has smoothed and is not edgy yet retains great accuracy. No sibilance. I have always liked my First-Watt SIT-2 solid-state amp for it's terrific detail, triode-like sound and BIG expansive soundstage. It's my most-favorite solid-state amp. I had most of that in the past with the Sophia Princess mesh-plates except for the expansive soundstage, and while the Sophia Royal Princess was a definite cut above the Princess's in all respects, the LinLai now surpasses them. The LinLai's now match my First-Watt SIT-2 for that big soundstage. I like it ! Also the LinLai's have a great realistic sounding mid-range which in my opinion is where the rubber-meets-the-road so to speak. One other area I've discovered with the LinLai's that I'm having trouble describing is the music definitely has more "body". There seems to be more weight or "heft" to the music over-all and not just in the bass-area. Another nice quality.
One other thing I've done is checked the bias after about an hour of warm-up every time I've done my listening and at first, I was adjusting, re-checking and fine-tuning. Now in the last several times I've checked, it appears to be spot-on. I always reference the line-voltage when doing bias adjustment as I adjust based on nominal voltage. Luckily, where I am in Florida, I've seen the line-voltage vary between 118V and 121V with it setting at 120V most of the time no matter what time of day. That in my opinion is good... I know listening is a subjective experience and with each piece of equipment/component, your "individual mileage may vary", so to speak, however with my SET-up, this is what I'm hearing.
I don't know how much more these tubes will change with more hours, however I like what I'm hearing, so far... More-to-come...
