Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

@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.      

@rah50  Thank you for the clarification. Helps clear the air. And tks for highlighting  the socket savers you use. Have sent you a PM. Appreciate your feedback. 

@decooney, this is actually the first tube I’ve ever had this issue with.   When you mentioned it,I remember I read this on Brent Jessee’s website,and I also remember hearing about tapping the tube to dislodge the cathode material somewhere else on the interwebs.  However,if you never had posted that,it never would have jogged my memory.  It took three separate tappings to get rid of the issue. ( I had noise, shut system down,tapped both tubes. Waited a couple minutes, popped them back in, fired everything up, rinse and repeat.  I also left the tubes out for a few days,and got re acquainted with the blue globe Psvanes.  I’m at about 15 hours of noise free enjoyment of the Linlai’s.  So far,everything seems to be back on track.

@rah50  Hi Rah. Unfortunately my PM didnt go through I think. Do you own a Schiit Freya+ and if you do, may I know how you find the Linlais with Freya+. Any other tubes you match the Linlais with?  Currently am using the Sylavania chrome top 6sn7 GTBs(yellow labels) along with the stock JJs. Plan to use the Linlais on gains and Sylvanias on buffer to get a better feel. The Sylvanias are being burnt in.  They do sound good.

Plus points are slightly warmer tones- non fatiguing, great clarity, sweet and smooth highs, good holographic feel with some depth in midrange. Things can be improved at least in my system are the soundstage which is there but not as wide and bass which is fairly decent.  Hoping with the burn in, it opens up more and  hoping the Linlais will add to the sonic delivery along with the Sylvanias.

As for the socket savers you highlighted, do they fit well with the Freya + and Linlais, as it could be fully seated. I  was concerned that adding another layer may affect sound quality but some of the respondents here feel otherwise. So am gonna experiment with sockets and am looking for a good one to get. Hope the ones you highlighted fits the bill. There is a black and gold version of these sockets I think with the gold ones being slightly pricier.

Thanks for your help. Appreciate it.

@ram18 Hi Ram: I do have a Freya+ but I don't have a lot of tube experience with it. I bought it without tubes and other than having 4 Elites in it, I initially had Elites in the gain stage and Psvane UK 6SN7's in the buffer. This sounded terrific but I was liking the Elites so much I got another pair for the buffer. The result was certainly worth the cost, much better soundstage, especially depth. Much better low end in quality and quantity, really just significantly better all around and that was immediately obvious even with zero hours on them. The Psvanes UK's are supposed to be pretty decent tubes and I still only have about 35 hours on the buffer stage pair of Elites. I'm really happy with my system at the moment, incredibly musical. As to the socket savers I recommended, I can't tell if they effect the sound, I hear varying reports about their usage in the forums. I have another brand which I don't like as much, way too tight. Didn't see the gold pin version, not sure it really helps or not. I can't imagine that the goodness the Elites bring would be negated enough to ditch them for a tube that doesn't need the savers. Hth, Bob