About a year and a half ago, I had the good fortune to meet Ian Grant at his Airdrie, Alberta store. I had gone there to inquire about possibly replacing the stock KT88’s on my Yaqin MC100B with a quad of Psvane’s.
Upon hearing that I had replaced the other stock tubes with vintage ones (thanks BYoungman) he proceeded to lecture me on the drawbacks of old stock tubes versus purpose designed new glass. (new being specifically designed with soundstage, presence and musicality in mind as opposed to the somewhat more hit or miss approach of the early tubes from the 50’s and 60’s as well as doubting the longevity and reliability of used or old tubes among other reasons)
After leaving there much chagrinned and enlightened, I went home and looked-up the prices on a quad of Psvane Treasure KT88’s as well as vintage ones such as Mullard or GEC. ($435 for the Psvanes , more than half as much as the cost of the amp itself and over $800 for the vintage ones). OUCH!
18 months later (ironically on the eve of Ian’s passing, may he rest in peace), I finally pulled the trigger. Within 5 days of placing the order, the tubes were delivered by DHL all the way from Hong-Kong.
I immediately set about swapping out the cheap as dirt stock tubes and setting the bias. Since the TV was already on, I ran it through the amp while I set the bias just to make sure that all was well and that the tubes were firing on all cylinders so to speak. Within minutes of turning everything on, I was pleasantly surprised to note a clear difference in the quality of the sound of the TV as compared to what I was used to with the stock tubes which was rather anaemic at best. Once all the parameters were set and good to go, I switched to the CD player and proceed to listen to Pink Floyd’s Wish you were here and Meddle. I chose those two as I had been listening to them over and over for the past couple of days, and their sound under the old tubes was still fresh in my mind.
Since I really don’t know what is implied by words such as soundstage and presence etc, I will only say that the difference was like moving from a small house to a much larger one. The sound was bigger, the ceiling was higher, the atmosphere was airier (if there is such a word). In short, everything was just more. I was also almost shocked to discover instruments used in the recording of Wish You Were Here that I had never heard before. To Wit: what sounded like a wind chime in the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1), very clear and crisp.
To be honest, being the tree hugging, bleeding heart, question everything liberal type that I am, I cannot help but wonder how much of a placebo effect may be at play here. After shelling out hundreds of Dollars for these tubes, was I hearing what I wanted to hear in order to justify the cash outlay? Maybe a little, but if so, not very much. After all, I did pick-up on sounds and instruments I had never heard before and the improvements are notable and repeatable.
In conclusion:
Are they worth it? Yes
Are they twice as good as a quad at half the price? I don’t know as I have not tried any.
Do I regret the purchase? No F’ing way.
P.S. I have set the bias at .50v, though through a Google search I have come across everything from .3v to .6v as the correct setting. If anybody has more or better info, I would be glad to hear it.
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Seriously, I hope the tubes live a long and happy life, I've come across a few posts about longevity issues lately.
