Matched Pair Psvane CV181-T Mark II Vacuum Tube New Premium Grade Treasure Tube

So I got the Psvane CV181-T Mark II to replace the stock Shuguang WE6SN7, which I do really, really like, but I want even more.My system is as follows: Chord Qutest DAC to Cayin HA-300 DHT 300b amp to Audeze LCD-3 Fazor.So after about 3 hours, here's what I notice about the CV181.The Psvane CV181-T mkII, wow, right away, these sounded beautiful! Just a tad darker, sweeter, and warmer than the Shuguang, but no less musical and energetic. If anything, there's a sense of "roundness" to the notes, a little more "tubey" than the fairly neutral Shuguang, and definitely more body and slam in the mid-bass and bass. I didn't have to EQ in a bit more bass anymore. The treble is slightly smoothen out, but not dampened, meaning I still get nice crisp cymbals and anything high that hits, but vocals and wind/string instruments have a smoother, sweeter high melody.This is especially great for jazz and classical/soundtrack, but works well for pop, rock, EDM, and yes, rap. The only fault so far that I found is if the mid to mid-treble is densely layered, it can get a little too dense. Also, the mid-vocal can be a little too forward if it's recorded forward. It almost takes over too much at times, but, luckily this doesn't happen too often. I'm hoping these two things will settle down as I continue to burn in these tubes.Packaging-wise, if you get the Matched Pair Premium Grade from Amazon, you'll get it in a nice case. I ordered it on Monday March 9, it was shipped from Hong Kong, and it arrived today on March 16. Surprising, considering the craziness we're all dealing with the Coronavirus.Only thing I'm a bit disappointed is that the left tube has some uneven application of the grey coating at its bottom, and some of the gold coating is also rubbed off.Music listened on Amazon Music HD (via Jriver in order to bypass Windows 10's upscaling) mostly in UltraHD (24-bit 48Khz to 192Khz) and some in HD (16-bit 44.Khz):- Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me (Amazing test for low, powerful piano, great vocals, low distinct bass pluck, etc)- Friday Night Plans - Plastic Love (that dark electronic groove)- Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (that vocal and guitar!)- Heize feat. Dean - And July- Heize feat. Dean - Shut Up and Groove (Has this fast, rhythmic bass groove and just great vocals)- Common - Resurrection- Polo & Pan - Bakara (An audiophile dream with amazing percussive rhythm and so much to listen and pick out. One of my favorites)- Fleetwood Mac - Dreams- Fleetwood Mac - The Chain- Monty Alexander - Sweet Georgia Brown (really tests the speed, dynamic, separation, and transient of a system. Fast and complex!)- The Yuri Honing Trio - Walking on the Moon- Whitney Houston - I Have Nothing- Mariah Carey - Fourth of July- Arne Domnerus - Limehouse Blues (live)- Damien Rice - My Favorite Faded Fantasy- Taylor Swift - Delicate- Ariana Grande - Thank You Next- Ariana Grande - Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored- Missy Elliot - Work It- Lizzo - Good as Hell- Queen - Under Pressure (remastered)- Ben Webster - Ben's Blues- M83 - Outro- Santana feat Michelle Branch - The Game of Love- Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem- Sara K - If I Could Sing Your Blues- The Fred Hersh Trio - Played Twice- Johnny Frigo - I Love Paris- Paquito D'Rivera - Havana Cafe- Bela Banfalvi & Antoino Vivaldi - The Four Seasons "Summer" III. Presto- Jung Jaiel (Parasite Soundtrack) - The Belt of Faith (that amazing montage from the film!)- Heize - But, I am Your Buddy- Lisa Batiashvili - Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major 1. Allegro moderato

Waste of money. Nowhere even close to the previous T-II. My NOS Sylvanias KILL these. I'm off of the Chinese 2 year "design cycle", I will stick with vintage NOS from now on.

Last Fall I bought a new Cary SLI-80 with all the upgrades. Unfortunately, they ship with Electro-Harmonix tubes. Now, I understand that Cary is not in the tube biz but these EH tubes could drive a person to solid state, even after a hundred hours burn-in.So, I set about replacing the supplied tubes with New Old Stock, excepting the output tubes which are Psvane KT120-Z CB (great tubes, still stable after hundreds of hours.) The 6SN7 tubes I chose were NOS RCA Blackplates. The amp was singing beautifully, and I might have left well enough alone had I not suspected that detail and resolution were being smoothed out in favor of a "creamy" overlay.Which brings me at last to the subject of this review: the Psvane cv181-tii. I'm in love! Now that I have more than 20 hours playing time on the these tubes, they're settling in and their character is apparent. They surpass the respected RCA tubes in every way; openness, clarity, texture, articulation, timbrel accuracy, realism, etc. All the audiophile buzzwords. The RCA is not a bad tube, far from it, but these Psvane are outstanding! It's almost as if the amp has been upgraded to something higher up in the product line.If and when I need new tubes elsewhere in the amp, Psvane will be my first choice.