Linlai E 6sn7 tubes

@xcool  Does the Chinese letterings the Linlai website is referring to is the words on the box. Cause I dont see any Chinese letterings on the tubes of any of the versions brought to attention  so far.

Hi @ram18,  I went back and read the Lanlai Global website again.  Although they didn’t explicitly say where the Chinese logo are printed, but from the context of the writing, I take that it means the logo is on the tube itself. 

You are right about not seeing any Chinese writings on the tube itself, and I guess none of us has either   The fact that those tubes with the horizontal letterings are manufactured for the Asian markets is just a best guess, since Linlai Global would not acknowledge them  

@xcool  Tks for your thoughts. I was actually excited by these tubes, still am. But its somewhat disheartening to know there are various models out there and not a single authenticated piece which we all can chime on, considering they are  relatively pricey. Well at the end of the day, its how these tubes sound.  From my initial reading here, the ones with horizontal letterings seem to sound of quality, likewise the ones with vertical letterings,  not sure which is better. But if it is of quality to start off with, than its a good investment either way.  So am keeping my fingers crossed as I continue to burn in these tubes.

@ram18 Yes, I couldn’t agree more. At the end of the day, it’s what sounds good to you that matters most.

Kudos to @rocray that started this thread. I’ve been thinking about getting some good sounding new production tubes and not relying on the NOS market. Who knows how long the NOS supplies are going to last.

All of this back and forth about whether or not the tubes without the Global branding are counterfeit or in some way inferior seems kind of nuts to me.  The simplest and most likely explanation is that the tubes are in fact identical, exactly as they appear to be, and they are simply branded differently for different markets.  The Global branding is a deliberate attempt to sow confusion in Western markets so that 1) distributors are willing to invest in distributing them and 2) they can sell at a higher price.

NOS tubes are exactly the same with many Sylvania and GE tubes etc. etc. selling under many brand names for exactly the same tube.

Perhaps Grant Fidelity adds a separate testing step but the idea that they are getting superior tubes seems ridiculous.  If it helps you sleep at night and you are willing to pay more then buy from them.  Or assume the risk of a more difficult  return and buy from an eBay or Aliexpress seller.  But the idea that tubes that are internally identical but have different lettering are functionally different seems ludicrous.