2. amps-preamps
  3. 175227-68463

Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

I just placed an order for a pair of these for my Aric Audio Motherlode II.  I’ve been chatting with a fellow that runs the E 6sn7 in his Don Sachs pre. He loves them, He says they make his NOS tubes sound thin and lifeless.  
    It will be a couple weeks until I receive them,and I was curious if anyone out in Agon land has tried these,and what are your impressions?   
Thanks in advance,

    Ray

128x128rocray
ram18
87 posts
 
Hi All
I wish to seek your advise. Do the  E 6sn7 Linlai tubes fit the sockets as in it is fully seated in the Schiit Freya+ without any gaps
I was excited and went to purchase the LinlaiE6sn7. Brought my Freya + amp along. But the  salesperson could not fit the Linlais into the sockets fully. There was a slight gap between the socket and base of the tube,  a little of the pins could be seen.  This was only two tubes at the gain stage.  The tubes were not fully seated on the sockets. I left the shop empty handed. Darn. Any one managed to fit the E Linlai 6sn7 fully into the Freya+ sockets? If you have, pl do let me know how as I really like these tubes. Thanks a lot.
rah50
8 posts
 

No, the Linlai Elites will need socket savers to fit in the Freya+. I’m using the Amptata’s from Amazon. 

mambacfa
76 posts
 

Best value in high-end 6SN7 tubes. I had to replace an insanely-expensive pair of NOS Brimar CV-181 with the LinLai Elite and the new tubes are on par with the other tubes which cost 4x as much. Buying through Rachel at Grant Fidelity is always a great experience. 

rocray's avatar
rocray OP
1,448 posts
 

Once again, I’d like to send a thanks out to @decooney for the suggestion of tapping to loosen up the cathode material inside the tubes. I had to repeat this process three times. I have had the Linlai’s back in for about 8 hours today with no tube rush or any other nasties.  Also,looks like my second pair will be in my possession on Monday.  I will give those a good burn in once they arrive. 
 

     Ray

decooney
2,119 posts
 

@rocray Sure thing.  Just to clarify, not all of my 6SN7 / CV181 tubes required any tapping to settle loose material floating around inside the tubes after some early burn-in.  This did occur on some of my better-smaller signal 1960s NOS tubes from Brent Jesse, and this helped to solve it in the same manner 3rd try of tapping pins gently on a hard surface. After that, fast clicks, pops, went away, fortunately. Voodoo magic, who knows. It worked in cases with my older vintage tubes though.  

Curious to know if this is resolved for you by now or if it keeps happening past your 3rd tapping attempt. Often times I wonder about differences with early batches from these tube manufacturers where someone is buying "older" stock from one resellers vs. another reseller - with (perhaps) a later version of the same tube on the shelf where the mfg caught issues and fixed it early for future batches before anyone knows it. All theoretical of course. Will be interesting to see if your next pairs work differently compared to your early pairs you received. Please share more as this unfolds.      

  

More to discover