Anyone try modern 6sn7 Shuguang WE type vs NOS RCA,Ken Rad


I just bought a KT-88 amp that uses 6sn7’s and the matching preamp uses the 6sn7 tube also. It came with kt88 Shuguang WE plus and all 6sn7’s in the amp and preamp both came with the same Shuguang WE plus.
 

I have a huge stash of old 6sn7’s Ken Rads vt231, gray glass rca, Sylvania vt231 and many others. I am going to pull them out this week and see what these new production tubes can do.

 

I’ve never used new production signal tubes. To be honest the Shuguang sound pretty good but have never compared them to anything. 

 

What are your views on these new tubes are they even close or as good or even better? Are they cheap and will go up in smoke, thanks for any insight.

paulcreed

The shuguang CV 181 tubes are a 6sn7 drop in replacement, the Mullard cv181 tubes are not they have a higher heater current of 900ma.

@invalid That is blatant misinformation. It has to be also deliberate as you have clearly read the quote I provided which mentions Mullard (drawing 950mA, by the way).

Care to explain to the community?

I have been running a pair of the Shu Guang WE6SN7 Plus tubes in a Dennis Had Inspire headphone/preamp for about a year now and love them. Have about 700 hours on them with no issues at all and they replaced a pair of Sylvania 50s chrome dome tubes that have proven to be my favorites till the Shu Guangs showed up, still go back to the chrome domes every now and then but do prefer the Shu Guangs overall. I am a Shu Guang/Psvane fan and have been since I tried their smaller signal tubes 10 years ago, currently run at least 23 of their tubes in preamps, amps, headphone amps, dacs and phono stages and have had no failures as of yet. VIVA tube is a good source and I have had really good luck buying on ebay direct from China. I thought it would be prudent to look for readily available current issue tubes and the Psvane and Shuguangs have allowed me to have a go to that is fresh stock. When I reference their small tubes I am referring to their Treasure series. I just bought a Psvane Classic Series 274B rectifier Tube and hope it works out as right now Brimar rectifier tubes are my favorites. Enjoy the music

That is blatant misinformation. It has to be also deliberate as you have clearly read the quote I provided which mentions Mullard (drawing 950mA, by the way).

Care to explain to the community?

You must have read my post wrong, I acknowledged that the nos mullard's are not drop in replacements, but the shuguang CV 181's are, as they are not the same as the Mullard cv181's. I have no idea why shuguang labeled them this way.

I’m off this week so I took out the Shuguang WE plus 6sn7’s today and put in RCA gray glass let them run for most of the day.

 

The RCA’s sound very smooth nice detail and bass. Put Shuguang back in and have to admit it’s a very nice tube. The RCA did not embarrass it at all. There just different Shuguang is a very refined tube. RCA more relaxed. 
 

I’m a little surprised. It’s a very natural detailed tube and could be happy with it. I haven’t tried my other 6sn7’s,

 

I do have some quads of Shuguang KT-88-T and WE Plus that came with amp that have never been used, brand new and I hear these Shuguang go out and red plate there first few hours in the amp. I’ve heard they have quality control problems. That may be okay in a signal tube but a power tube is another story. That is a concern. That’s not something a NOS Mullard xf2 EL34 would do. It could but doubtful.