[mca]

Anyone know what the differences are between these tubes? I was just about to order a quad of the Black Treasure tubes from Hanshare-electronics for my Ayon Spirit. Are the Psvane tubes worth the extra cost?

[roscoeiii]

THere might be info on Grant Fidelity's website.

Also Hanshare is more affordable, but you might want to look at Grant Fidelity's website on their matched pairs. Sure those are pricier, but they also give you tubes that are likely to last longer and that might be better matched. I think that they have a link to a spreadsheet of their tests which will give you an idea of the variance you see in the Black Treasure and maybe also Psvane tubes.

[nickd]

I have the Spirit III with the Black Treasure KT88's. Quite amazing sound, best I've ever had in my home I think. Not sure how good the Psvane tubes are though, never heard a set.

I think the Ayon KT88 gear is now designed around the black treasure tubes. They put the company's reputation on the line for that tube. That says a lot to me about their quality and sound.

[jostber]

More on the Psvane tubes here:

http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/

[Freo-1]

I have a quad of Black Treasures, and I had a quad of Psvanes as well.  I had to send the quad of Psvanes back, as the quality control on the ones I had was suspect.  They had trouble with bias, as they kept "creeping up".  The Psvanes did sound slightly different, but I cannot say that they were better, just different.

IMHO, the tube to get (if you want an upgrade from Black Treasures) is the Canada Fuller KT88.  After returning the Psvanes, got a quad of the Canada Fuller tubes.  Now, these are very impressive sounding.  The midrange from the Canada Fuller sounds closer to actual music than the Black Treasures, and the treble has slightly more clarity.  The overall presentation from the Canada Fuller seems a bit more "alive" compared to the Black Treasures.  The difference is immediately noticeable.  Although the Black Treasures are still one of my favorite sounding KT88/6550 tubes, the Canada Fuller is a step up overall.

A couple of notes:  1) The Canada Fuller tubes I have are the "clear glass" as opposed to the carbon coated.  The reason for that is that when researching these, the carbon coated tubes all were of the earlier distortion variety.  The clear tubes were the only ones available that were of the late distortion variety.  2) The bias from the Canada Fuller quad was rock solid, and very close.  The quality control seems to be a step up from the Black Treasures.