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Psvane 12AX7 initial impression

I rolled the Psvane 12AX7 in my Accustic Arts tubed DAC last night (buffer stage). It is definitely a top tier 12AX7. It leans into the lush side of neutral but is well balanced top to bottom and has a rare quality, high end sparkle. This tube combines good body with good detail. Now in criticism, although it is a three mica tube, it had just a smidgen of smearing (I do need more hours listening to confirm this)that I do not hear out of the best 5751's or a small handfull of the best 12AX7's. I say this because I rolled a pair of Sylvania BP 3M SG in after the the Psvane. I have a large collection of OS 12AX7's and 5751's. The only great? tube in this family I don't have is the Telefunken ECC803S. Here are some in this family I consider top tier in no particular order: Raytheon 12AX7 BP SG, Raytheon 5751 BP 3M SG, Raytheon 5751 BP WG, Sylvania 5751 BP 3M SG, Brimar CV4004 half box plate, large halo getter, Mazda 12AX7S SP 3M HG, Mazda 5751 SP 3M HG, RCA 12AX7 BP SG, RCA 5751 BP 3M SG, GE 5751 BP 3M SG Tungsram 12AX7 GP HG. I am sure I am forgetting some that belong in this category but there are many systen tuning options among this group. I also have a lot of highly regarded 12AX7's that have some winning traits but are disqualified because they all smear detail in varying degrees. So the disqualifier is lack of clarity/smearing. I consider all the tubes on the list very good to great and which works best for you will be system and taste dependent. Finally, some of the tubes here are VERY system dependent. This means they are not well balanced and will only work best in a small group of systems. On that point, the Psvane is well balanced and will work well in many systems but I would not recommend them in a lush sounding system since they lean in that direction.

Bart


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