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Shuguang Treasure tubes....

I'm not sure if this is in the right place but this is about the tubes in my amp so here goes....Has anyone else given these Shuguan Treasure tubes a try?

I recently bought a used tube amp(VAC Phi 110) and the tubes that came with it were shot so I started poking around for some new tubes. I was looking for some Shuguang tubes, which are what I believe VAC supplies as standard/stock, and ran across Shuguangs limited production Treasure tubes. I poked around and did some reading, found a review or two and decided to give the only distributer for N. America(Grant Fidelity) a call. I spoke to a very kind and helpful lady who was patient with me(quite the task I might add!), was very nice and helpful and was darn knowledgeable on the tubes. Before I knew it my wallet had leapt out of my back pocket and I had splurged and ordered a matched quad of the Treasure Tubes, KT-88s. Within a couple of hours I had a tracking number and about a week later a box labeled "FRAGILE: GLASS!" was waiting for me when I got home from work.(A quick side note; during the short wait for the Treasure tubes to arrive I was using a borrowed quad of stock VAC KT-88 tubes and they were wonderful, great sounding tubes that I could live with forever....or that is until I found the Treasure tubes anyway.)

When the Treasure tubes showed up I ripped into the box and was shocked to see that each pair comes in a really nice presentation box with each tube very well protected in a foam insert, very classy. I removed the tubes, admired their beauty(they really are sweet looking tubes!) and popped them in the VAC and let them warm up for about 15-20 minutes. I then set bias on them and hit the play button expecting the usual tube break in time-wrong!...right out of the box these tubes sound fantastic! Seriously, I am shocked how at just good they sound fresh out of the box. Smooth clean highs, strong deep bass and all the other audiophile words we so endear. If they're this good right out of the box I can't wait until I get 100 hours or so on them. I'm no reviewer but I can say that these tubes offered a noticable improvement in my system and are worth every penny of their asking price, no doubt about it! So far they are chugging along and sounding beautiful and hold a rock solid bias, ZERO fluctuation.

Please understand that I have no affiliation with Grant Fidelity but when I run across a company that treats their customers so well and offers a product that performs at this level I feel I should share my experience with others, I'm one VERY hapy audionut!

Yes I actually do have a question and here it is; They(Grant Fidelity/Shuguang) also offer a 6SN7 substitute called the "CV-181", this is supposed to be a direct replacement for standard 6SN7's and I'm very interested in those as well. Has anyone else had the opportunity to give these tubes a try? Thanks for your replies.

Sincerely,
John
johngp
scottmac62's avatar
scottmac62
107 posts
 
I am curious if anyone has tried these tubes
in a Cary 300b SEI. I would also like to
hear from those that have full burn in.
I have tried several 300b's and have found
that some of them sound really good for
about 50 hours and then they lose there
soundstage and midrange magic even after
full break in.

The best tube so far has been the EH gold grid
and I have tried Sophia's and WE's.
johngp OP
226 posts
 
Jcspinks,
Hang in there, I have got to be in excess of 300 hours and my top end really snapped into place. If you're only at 80 hours or so you've got a little while to go. I said screw it and just left my darn amp on, got tired of waiting. I'm a little impatient at times...

Glad to see that others are interested in these tubes, they're worth the price of admission. Now, someone chime in on the CV-181's!! I want those babies something fierce but funds just aren't there at the moment.

John
grantfidelity's avatar
grantfidelity
21 posts
 
JohnP, there is a very positive (as in replaces his NOS favourites)review over on TNT-Audio for the CV-181's.

Cjfrbw, the very unfortunate thing about factory matching is that they think +/- 20% is fine for matching, which is the industry norm and as cool as their test gear is, the Amplitrex AT-1000 tester gives much more accurate and detailed results. We do have to rematch everything we recieve. Btw, NOS and other new production tubes also don't fair well in the Amplitrex for close 'Hi-end' matching. It can take many pairs to create a good pair and gets harder for quads etc. We hope our gear has at least 5% tolerance between parts in each channel, 2% being our specs and I've seen some guys go even lower to 1%, kind of doesn't make sense to throw in 20% tolerance tubes or worse eh !

Cheers,
Ian
jcspinks
17 posts
 
OK. 150 hours for the 6CA7s on the books and some very nice improvement in the vocals and treble. Now far smoother and outstanding imaging, very precise and fast, yet never in your face. Great resolution of detail now that was previously the opposite, somewhat slurred. I would say in each of these regards it (for now) surpasses the Siemens. Where the Siemens still excel is in the upper bass, where they do a better job of keeping the pace moving forward. Some of this is of course bias-dependent, but I'm pretty sure that the Siemens would win there now regardless of bias. Cymbals are still more real with the Siemens, but it is getting much closer.

These Shuggies are starting to impress me. Let's see if they can go all the way. I'll keep cooking them.
jcspinks
17 posts
 
200 hours in on the 6CA7s. Upon first listening after resetting bias to 34.8, the sound seemed very similar to the 150 hour mark with great vocals and detail, but with a minor lack of upper bass drive. Cymbals still a small tad less believable than with the Siemens. So, I decided to once again play with bias. I lowered it by one mA to 33.8 and got a shift to a tad more upper bass and cymbal realism with no destruction of image or vocals. Still looking for a bit more drive, I went ahead and lowered it by one more mA to 32.8, and by God I got it. It is responsive after all. However at this setting vocals started a bit of recession backward and imaging went softer. I reset to 33.5 and promptly got the best of both worlds, sounding very, very good indeed. The sound is now in competition with the Siemens.

I am still stunned by how these, like the Siemens, are SO responsive to smallish deltas in bias.

Perhaps this weekend I will reinstall the Siemens for a reality check. We all know how our audio memory is sometimes. However, I am pretty sure these are close and may even exceed the NOS tubes.
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