Sophia Electric 6SN7

jtsnead · « **on:** 6 Mar 2010, 02:25 pm »

Has anyone tried these tubes, they are always on ebay

jtsnead · « **Reply #1 on:** 9 Mar 2010, 03:08 am »

Guess not

jtsnead · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Apr 2010, 02:36 am »

let me know what you think, my Rogue 90 has them in the driver stage,
the bottle shape would cool with the other tubes

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Apr 2010, 02:42 am »

Boy, I've seen pretty pictures lots of times but that is a notably pretty picture. Don't know anything bout these tubes, tho. Sorry. Hope they're wonderful.

jtsnead · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Apr 2010, 03:24 am »

Sorry Zman,
I have Sylvania's not the Sophia's yet, been messing w/
all this class T & D stuff "Blasphemy I Know",

Still havent tried your battery supply yet, maybe tonight

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Apr 2010, 04:39 am »

Those look more like a CV181 than a 6SN7 to me, even though it clearly says 6SN7 on the glass. Do you know if they are a true 6SN7, or an equivalent?

I also got confused with The Shuguang Treasure Series CV-181Z, which is said to be an actual 6SN7 and not a real CV-181 . . . . .

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Apr 2010, 02:53 pm »

Maybe you're right zman. Here's where I got confused :

The CV-181 is not mentioned in the Duncan Amps pages as a close or identical substitute for the 6SN7 :

http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/show.php?des=6SN7
http://tdsl.duncanamps.com/show.php?des=6SN7GTB

Also, according to thetubestore, "The Shuguang Treasure Series CV-181Z tube is a unique take on the 6SN7 tube. Unlike a NOS CV-181 tube, the Shuguang CV-181-Z tube is a safe replacement in any 6SN7 circuit."

That sounds to me like a CV181 was not intended to directly replace the 6SN7. Not that it matters, but it still makes me wonder if the circuit requirements are identical. I have no proof, just curiosity.

Does someone have a data sheet?

starkiller · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Apr 2010, 06:06 am »

A set of the 6SN7's are on their way to me as I type so will let folks know what I think of them....

NagysAudio · « **Reply #8 on:** 30 Apr 2010, 07:21 am »

They are garbage. If the tubes are not "JAN" designated, than they are pure trash. And all new production tubes are horrendous. If any serious person here were to test them, they would see that new production is 100% crap.

starkiller · « **Reply #9 on:** 30 Apr 2010, 08:13 am »

Nagy's

So all those folks who like the tubes aren't "serious"?? And you have tested every single one of the new production tubes in every possible unit?? Wow, you have more time on your hands than I do!!

NagysAudio · « **Reply #10 on:** 30 Apr 2010, 06:21 pm »

Actually I've designed 300B amps in the past, with 6SN7 tubes. I've used them quite a bit. If the tube is not JAN designated, it is garbage, pure and simple. It's not living in the past. New production 6SN7 tubes are noisy trash that fail prematurely. Considering that NOS JAN tubes can be found everywhere, it is extremely upsetting that so many audiophiles fall for this Chinese/Russian new production garbage.

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #11 on:** 30 Apr 2010, 07:43 pm »

Quote from: NagysAudio on 30 Apr 2010, 06:21 pm

Considering that NOS JAN tubes can be found everywhere,

That philosophy only helps the sellers on ebay. I have an awful lot of other peoples garbage that I purchased as NOS JAN from dudes with 100 percent feed back.

Audiogon too.

NagysAudio · « **Reply #12 on:** 30 Apr 2010, 07:50 pm »

Plenty of online suppliers have JAN tubes consistently, angela.com, triodeelectronics, partsconnexion.com, etc. Yup, sometimes you can get ripped off on eBay, but sometimes you can get pretty good deals. Test your tubes when you receive them, if they measure poor, send them back, or file a complaint with eBay, or PayPal if that's how you payed. They're pretty good at refunding money.

iGrant · « **Reply #13 on:** 7 May 2010, 10:10 pm »

Quote from: NagysAudio on 30 Apr 2010, 07:21 am

They are garbage. If the tubes are not "JAN" designated, than they are pure trash. And all new production tubes are horrendous. If any serious person here were to test them, they would see that new production is 100% crap.

I'm serious and I test modern production Chinese tubes with an Amplitrex AT-1000 tube tester. We grade them A and B and rejects, the A and B grade Chinese tubes, TJ FullMusic (who make Sophia tubes) and the Shuguang Treasure tubes are premium tubes that equal or exceed anything in current or past production. We have the professional reviews, forum reviews, customer feedback and test results to back up this statement. Over 4000 of these tubes have been sold in the past year and a half since we received our Amplitrex and the premature failure rate is almost zero, much less than 1%. Every customer I have communicated with is thrilled with their tubes and many have now abandoned NOS tube searches.

zmanastronomy I use the TJ 6SN7 and 6SL7 tubes as stock now in our RITA amps, they are great tubes, they need about 100 hours to open up, enjoy your tubes and happy listening.

Ian

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #14 on:** 7 May 2010, 11:53 pm »

My TJ FullMusic 300B SE matched pair only lasted 6 months. They were the grade A balloon shape, special edition, and best of the best. About 700 dollars for the pair.

iGrant · « **Reply #15 on:** 8 May 2010, 01:21 am »

Quote from: Quiet Earth on 7 May 2010, 11:53 pm

My TJ FullMusic 300B SE matched pair only lasted 6 months. They were the grade A balloon shape, special edition, and best of the best. About 700 dollars for the pair.

Grade A from us, we never rated the TJ SE as graded, they were either to spec or rejected? We offered an optional 1 year warranty on ours, don't remember a pair ever going south, had a couple of singles go.

Our Grade A testing only came into effect for the Treasure tubes, we never offered Grade A TJ 300B/SE

Cheers,
Ian

Quiet Earth · « **Reply #16 on:** 9 May 2010, 04:37 am »

Thank's for the correction Ian. Yep, only one 300B failed and I don't remember which "method" qualified them for the premium price. Since they were purchased as a matched pair, they both had to go back to GF to get a match for the one that survived. Rachael said that you guys were getting too many failures with the TJs and there were none left to match at that time. I really liked the sound of my TJ ballons while I had them. Very, very good sound from that tube. I got the Treasure 'Black Bottle' 300B-Z as replacements and they don't have quite the magic. But still, I appreciate the fact that the warranty was honored even if the replacement tubes had to be different. It was a fair deal. It looks like the TJs are back in stock now and at a lower price too. It's all a little bit too confusing for me to keep track of.

Anyway, back to 6SN7s, it's just my long winded way of saying that I'm leery of spending big money on Chinese tubes because mine didn't last very long. I probably need a larger sample size to make a fair judgement. I'll man up and try again.

DARTH AUDIO · « **Reply #17 on:** 12 May 2010, 09:13 pm »

Quote from: zmanastronomy on 4 May 2010, 02:53 am

I have 26 hrs on my Sophias and they sound very good. About another 25hrs and I'll chime in on what there doing. So far so good.

Just wondering if you have an update on the Sophia 6SN7? How is it sounding in your system?

Thanks,

Gary

starkiller · « **Reply #18 on:** 15 May 2010, 12:53 am »

Will have a pair of Sophia Electric 6SN7 tubes in the classifieds pretty quick. No hours on them at all. Original boxes of course

starkiller · « **Reply #19 on:** 15 May 2010, 03:16 pm »

well, the deal fell through with what they were going to be used in so i went to the SS route which is a conrad-johnson, thus I will not be using them