Very interesting, thank you. Been curious about the Psvane tubes for a long time now (just in general, given the superlatives on various forums on the various tubes) but the reliability of them had me a bit concerned.

I'm quite excited about the meet. The 2A3x4 will be the highlight for me.

No NAS for me yet, I was about to pull the trigger on the vortexbox which can function as an NAS, but I decided it was probably too expensive if it wouldn't give me an audible upgrade.  Now that I am having some issues I think it may actually be worth it.  On the other hand something like an OR5 and short block may be able to cut out my PC sound issues and provide a better improvement in other aspects of the SQ. For now I am waiting a couple months to test out the OR5 before I make any decisions on exactly what to do.


Looking forward to hearing the WE275 impressions!  And Elysian, I got the Sovteks as stock.  Craig only lists the Shuguangs on the site now but to be honest I probably wouldn't buy either.  I think the Sovteks may have a slight treble harshness, though I can't be sure that it isn't my Sabre dac or the huge dynamics/slam of the amp or just the fact that I have spent at least 3-4 hours everyday listening since I got it and am getting fatigued (or a combination of all the above)

Thanks Stapsy. I also wouldn't recommend the Shuguangs in any tube form. I've used a few Shuguang tubes and while they aren't offensive, there is a harshness to all the Shuguang tubes. No point stockpiling extra tubes that are never going to be used.

If Craig isn't offering the Psvanes, hope he's willing to offer a version without stock tubes. Would you guys recommend Psvanes from Grant Fidelity, or is there a better seller? I hope the quality has gotten better since the Psvane team left Shuguang in 2011, but it doesn't seem to have happened with the 6CA7s.

Man, $439 a pair from GF! Not much of a discount from EML

The quality is still a bit risky, just try to make sure you have support from the vendor.  One of the 4 Psvanes did have a slight hiss/pop that eventually went away.  Even though it had a bottom getter, it might have had too many impurities in the tube still.  I believe it might have been the WR2A3.

The Sophia 45 sounds like shit while alone. Thin, brittle, etc.

When doubled up in pairs on the 445, they actually sound really good. It's a very viable solid-state sounding choice for the 445. I know, it's the weirdest thing.