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PSVANE 12Au7 12At7 12Ax7 "-T MKII" 2020 production run of small signal/driver tubes

Re-testing year 2020 production run of these tubes. Would like to hear from others who’ve re-tried recent production?

>>PSVANE 12Au7 12At7 12Ax7 "-T MKII" small signal/driver tubes made in year 2020"

Background:
After following stories about TJ Full Music’s founder passing, and the son reselling tooling of all of the small signal tubes to PSVANE, and recent luck over the past year with TJ 6SN7 tubes for my preamp, I thought I’d give the new PSVANE small tubes a retry. Checking to see if any designs or manufacturing goodness made it over to PSVANE yet from TJ. Also, took advantage of an opportunity to buy these direct from a major overseas distributor, direct. So far so good. Comparing to other known vintage tubes. Also following AudioNote’s recent use of PSVANE tubes in their preamplifiers, amplifiers, integrated amplifiers.

GOAL:
Find something "close enough" and hoard away all my vintage tubes. An improvement is always great too.  

COMPARISONS to vintage, others:
-Currently comparing to my vintage stash of 1960s Mullard "Blackburn", Tungsram, RCA, Sylvania, others.
-Also comparing to prior 2012 versions of these same PSVANE tubes made over eight years ago.
-No need to compare to new re-issue Mullard or JJ or other. Seems these new PSVANE are on a different level.

INITIAL Impression first 20 hours:
-a tad harsh and grainy
-midrange is obvious
-top end not rolled off
-sound stage front row, initially
-decent, interesting

AFTER 72 hours burn-in:
-smoothing out nicely, not there yet, close
-sound stage dropping back to mid-hall
-texture starting to come in
-nice midrange, top end smoothing out more
-tone of piano and guitars shaping up nicely
-Nice, haven’t pulled them yet!

APPLICATION
My mono tube amplifiers
(2) Input tubes; 12AU7s
(2) driver tubes; 12AT7s
Friend testing in his preamp
(2) Input, preamp: 12AX7s

------------------------------
REQUEST:
Would like to hear from others who’ve re-tried recent 2020 production of PSVANE 12AU7 or 12AT7 or 12AX7 ?
What are you hearing, are they better than prior PSVANE versions you tried years ago? Similar findings or ???





decooney
decooney OP
2,334 posts
 

@johnss ,

I agree with the same concern. But since they have a warranty of 1 year, I will see how long these Horizons last and if they will honor the warranty. At $49 a pair, I think @decooney might as well try them. It you want to get the ART series, I recommend Vivatubes, since they check them and have a warranty.

I’ve successfully exercised the warranty and return policy with Viva Tubes multiple times now. And so have a few audio buddies of mine again lately. Never had problems in the past with them. Following up again now, be sure they pack/box well - heads up.

I don’t care about the cost of small tubes as much as I care about the longevity any more. I’m currently using my direct-overseas packed and shipped tubes now instead with no issues after 2- 3yrs. All of my private seller vintage tubes, several pairs, [all well packed and boxed] continue to work perfectly fine as well.

johnss
610 posts
 

Vivatubes is a great seller and does try to filter out the duds. Have bought quite a few dozen tubes from them. Both Chinese and Russian. Some duds still can get through. Not sure if the packaging on the China sourced tubes has much of an effect or not/ My guess is (based on the test results) the super wide variability, and ELFs in manufacturing at the factory coupled with a mile wide test spec at Shuguang and PSVANE. And in China there are tubes scrapped. Everything gets sold.

And you really can't use these in any gear that pushes the tube right at the design limits such as VTL or ARC. You will end up with fireworks. 

 

I have tested quite a few new tubes from both mfgrs. in the maximatcher. Test results are all over the map from completely worn out to spectacular. Think a lot of getting a great tube or a dud tube is luck of the draw on which tubes a buyer gets.  

If a person has a large stash of NOS US and Euro tubes I certainly would not think about dumping the stash in favor of these Chinese tubes. 

I have a pretty large stash of RCA 5814 black plates so have reverted back to these. For power tubes have switched back to EH or the Tungsol Russian re-issues. 

 

 

decooney OP
2,334 posts
 

Just heard back this week from PSVane direct. They asked for info and I sent photos of my Oct ’22 manufactured date pair of CV-181 TII tubes I stopped using. QA issues were acknowledged from this time period, and they are following up.

Also responding to my questions around naming and branding confusion - received a breakdown explanation between the Acme / Art Series / Horizon Series tubes. Will need to interject and relay that somewhere when the topic comes up again on some thread somewhere I guess, at their request.

I'm holding off on purchasing any Art Series small tubes until this other matter is updated and possibly resolved. Sharing fwiw.  

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