I just took delivery of a matched pair of each of those tubes. Other than the gold pins on the Apos Rays, they appear to be identical. Hmmmmm… At $207.00 and $60.00 respectively, I can’t wait to compare them in my BHK Preamp for any audible differences. I’ll be doing that later today and will post my findings. I’m hoping the Psvanes sound just as good for 1/3rd of the price. If so, the Apos Rays are taking the long road back to China.
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I had both tubes in my BHK. The Apos Ray tubes were much better to my ears, when I ordered them last October they were $180. I thought they were easily worth it. Good luck!
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When I had BHK Pre, Apos Ray 12au7 easily outperformed the stock Psvane too.
Dchang05 & softlight64, what version of the Psvanes did you have…the Art line, or Horizon line? The Art line internal structure is visibly different from the Horizons, with the most obvious differences being the plates, insulation spacers and connections below the bottom insulator spacer. They are a completely different design. Psvane claims the Horizons are new and improved and were introduced on May 28, 2024.
In what way were the Apos better?
I just went back and forth a number of times comparing the Apos to the Psvane Horizons and without any burn in time yet, I don’t hear a difference. However, I compared them to a pair of burned in Art Psvanes and they do sound better than the Arts.
I’m going to burn both sets in for a while and then do another comparison.
From Psvanes Website:
" * With an enhanced internal structure design, our 12AX7-AT, 12AU7-AT, and 12AT7-AT tubes have significantly improved performance, achieving industry-leading minimal noise and microphonics. Thanks to an extensive pre-burning process, these tubes deliver exceptional performance from the start, ensuring an extraordinary auditory experience. Experience the difference now and enjoy unprecedented clarity and detail."
" * It has tonal density with a strong and full flavor. The bass and mid-range are full and smooth, well-balanced, and good overall performers with a high frequency extension and good separation. It maintains excellent composure, never losing its cool, even under complex and messy mixes."
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I don’t know which line my PSVanes were, they came with my BHK. The Apos Ray tubes were better in every way, not close.
They were more than likely the Psvanes prior to the Horizon collection.
Well, I burned in both sets of tubes and did some critical listening. I also had an audiophile buddy over to listen as well. The bottom line is that we could not hear any differences between the Apos Rays and Psvane Horizons. We swapped them in and out about six or seven times, but never heard the slightest difference in timbre, imaging, sound stage, instrument separation, dynamics, bass, etc. Luckily, Apos allowed me to return them with just a $10 return shipping fee.
I have a very revealing system, consisting of an Airlens endpoint, Direct Stream DAC, BHK Preamp, BHK 250 amp feeding Magnepan’s new 3.7X and two REL T7i Subs. Speaker cables are Wire World, DH Labs interconnects and an AudioQuest Carbon HDMI out of the Airlens to the DSD I2S port. I was streaming to the Airlens via Roon
I studied the structure again of both tubes closely, using a magnifying glass under bright lights. They look identical, other than the gold pins on the Rays. So, if you’re going to put some new tubes in your BHK preamp, you might want to snag a matched set of Psvane Horizons on Amazon for $60.00, rather than dropping $207.00 for the Rays. BTW…Psvane even provides a 1 year warranty.
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Thank you for the outstanding review. PSVane has a number of “collections” (Art, ACME, Horizon, etc.) Is Horizon the one to get vs ACME for instance?