@rah50 Hi Bob, thanks for the insightful impressions and congrats on your purchase. Well since you own a Freya + it helps getting some accurate feedback. I have been looking at these E Linlai 6sn7s and there have been really good postive responses on this forum and others. Only thing, most have said it requires 100 hours of burn in or so. Glad to hear at 35 hours you are seeing positive results. The PSVanes are no slouch either but I guess based on reviews and your experience, the Linlais edge it.
I like the the fact that the Linlais bring across better soundstage and better low ends (both quantity and quality) overall which is currently missing in my Sylvanias. Just to ask, do you find the Linlais transparent? Reason being my Sylvanias while detailed, give a slight warm feel which has helped tone down my Klipsch slightly bright presentation. So hoping for the Linlai- Sylvania combo not to be too warm.
Thanks for the info about the socket savers. And as you say, good to invest in a good set of tubes with the sockets as it could bring more benefits without. Now am gonna try the socket savers for the Linlais. Currently, am thinking of matching Sylvanias on the buffer with Linlais on the gain. And if the Linlais are gonna score really well, may just get quad Linlais for my Freya + like you have done. Schiit apparently recommends all quads being of the same tube make. So may go down that road.
Thanks for your insights and appreciate your views.