[Promee]

I’m sure it will take a little time to fully reveal itself… Sounds like the first step was already positive with the top end calming down a touch. I hope it’s a pleasant journey as it breaks in the rest of the way!

 

[michael2v]

I know this is the 6SN7 thread, but I wanted to add one definite positive that I've noticed with my Apos Ray 12AU7 compared to other tubes (had been using an RCA clear-top in my Bottlehead Crack); namely, EM interference. With the Apos 12AU7, the wifi/cellular chatter that my phone induces in the amp if I'm not careful where I put it is typically just a quiet chirping. Nothing dramatic, but certainly noticeable. With other 12AU7 tubes like the aforementioned RCA, the EMI sounds downright cacophonous, almost like the tube is about to short itself out and take a driver with it in the process.

Visually I can't see that much of a difference in the tube topology to understand how its better-shielded or less sensitive, but whatever they've done seems to be really effective!

Edit: After using it for a few weeks now, I was curious to see whether I noticed any differences going back to the RCA clear-top. Right away I noticed more background noise that was independent of the gain setting, and it also wasn't coming from up the chain since it was still present with the Crack disconnected from RCA. Putting the Apos 12AU7 back in and it was whisper quiet, with no other compromises on sound quality as far as I can hear!

 

[4udio7ool]

After a long 3 week wait, I finally got my replacement 6SN7 Reserve last week. I'm using it with the Schiit Lyr+ and returned the first one because I experienced loud microphonics in the left channel. The replacement also has microphonics, this time in the right channel, but at a much lower level than before. Before I couldn't move or the vibrations carried through the headphone cable would cause audible noise even when the Lyr+ was set for low gain. Now I have to be manipulating the Lyr+ for it to be audible.

I don't know enough about what causes microphonics to comment on whether this is a weakness in the tube or just the combination of using this tube in the Lyr+. Regardless it is at an acceptable level for me and the Reserve does sound noticeably more tubey than the stock Tung Sol.

 

[Promee]

After a long 3 week wait, I finally got my replacement 6SN7 Reserve last week. I'm using it with the Schiit Lyr+ and returned the first one because I experienced loud microphonics in the left channel. The replacement also has microphonics, this time in the right channel, but at a much lower level than before. Before I couldn't move or the vibrations carried through the headphone cable would cause audible noise even when the Lyr+ was set for low gain. Now I have to be manipulating the Lyr+ for it to be audible.

I don't know enough about what causes microphonics to comment on whether this is a weakness in the tube or just the combination of using this tube in the Lyr+. Regardless it is at an acceptable level for me and the Reserve does sound noticeably more tubey than the stock Tung Sol.

Occasionally I’ve had microphonics improve a bit with time, sometimes not… fingers crossed for you that it settles in more!!

 

[Wes S]

Here is my review of this excellent sounding 6SN7.

Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve. The new production tube that can. . .

First off, I would like to thank Apos Audio for the opportunity to demo this tube. I have been an avid tube roller for years and have always favored NOS or OS tubes, as my few attempts of listening with current production tubes never did it for me. That being said, I have finally found a new production tube, that has all the attributes I look for in a tube, and actually blew my mind with it's performance and that is the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve.

Let's start with the bass, and this tube can slam. The bass is quite powerful and digs deep when called for. The subbass extension is excellent and tight, and can be felt with the right track. The middbass is punchy yet never bleeds into the mids, and the overall bass presentation is tight and extended and very well done. I actually don't think it can get any better.

Onto the mids, and they are extremely clean and transparent, with all the little nuances and details coming through in full effect. The mids have excellent linearity and you can hear all instruments clearly. The vocals are the star of the show here, and are present and a tad bit more forward than the rest of the mix, of which I prefer as I am a vocals lover and love being able to hear every little syllable and lip smack between words. The upper mids are very well implemented, and I am a bit sensitive in this area and they never get harsh.

The treble is well extended, airy, and very refined sounding. There is good sparkle up top, yet it never sounds forced or harsh. Treble heads will love this presentation.

Now onto the staging and imaging, and the Reserve is top notch in these categories as well. The staging has really good expansion in all directions, and is about as good as it gets for a 6SN7. The stage is open and airy without sounding too diffused. The imaging is also fantastic with fully fleshed out images with good air/space between them. Images are clearly defined, without any blurring.

I also want to mention how quiet this tube is, and it has a super black background. This in turn really lets the details and little nuances come through in full effect. I believe the excellent construction of this tube, as well as the careful selection process of Apos, is what has lead to this super quiet and excellent performing tube.

As for some comparisons to some of my favorite NOS 6SN7's, I rolled the KenRad Black Glass 6SN7GT and the RCA Grey Glass 6SN7GT. The Reserve held its own and easily bested both of those tubes, with better transparency/detail and a more balanced sound top to bottom. The bass on the KenRad sounds bloated in the middbass, after hearing the super tight and deep bass of the Reserve. As for the RCA Grey Glass it was too slow, and muddy sounding with blurring of detail and images, and could not hang with the Reserve's excellent detail retrieval. I also rolled in some new production Tung Sol 6SN7's, and they were not in the same league as the Reserve. All this being said, I believe the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve is one of the best options sonically if one is looking for a 6SN7.

Now onto the value of this tube, and the pricing. I honestly think Apos was shooting for moon with the very high price and think they priced them a tad bit too high if I am being honest. That being said, there is something to be said for ease of purchase, and having a one year warranty. . .

All in all, I really enjoyed demoing this tube, and this tube I has given this old NOS tube guy hope for the future of New Production tubes. I think the Reserve is a tube that would work well in many different systems due to its excellent balance and transparency, and I think anyone would be happy to have it in their collection.

Happy listening to all and thanks for reading,

Wes

 

[Doug2507]

Here is my review of this excellent sounding 6SN7.

Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve. The new production tube that can. . .

First off, I would like to thank Apos Audio for the opportunity to demo this tube. I have been an avid tube roller for years and have always favored NOS or OS tubes, as my few attempts of listening with current production tubes never did it for me. That being said, I have finally found a new production tube, that has all the attributes I look for in a tube, and actually blew my mind with it's performance and that is the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve.

Let's start with the bass, and this tube can slam. The bass is quite powerful and digs deep when called for. The subbass extension is excellent and tight, and can be felt with the right track. The middbass is punchy yet never bleeds into the mids, and the overall bass presentation is tight and extended and very well done. I actually don't think it can get any better.

Onto the mids, and they are extremely clean and transparent, with all the little nuances and details coming through in full effect. The mids have excellent linearity and you can hear all instruments clearly. The vocals are the star of the show here, and are present and a tad bit more forward than the rest of the mix, of which I prefer as I am a vocals lover and love being able to hear every little syllable and lip smack between words. The upper mids are very well implemented, and I am a bit sensitive in this area and they never get harsh.

The treble is well extended, airy, and very refined sounding. There is good sparkle up top, yet it never sounds forced or harsh. Treble heads will love this presentation.

Now onto the staging and imaging, and the Reserve is top notch in these categories as well. The staging has really good expansion in all directions, and is about as good as it gets for a 6SN7. The stage is open and airy without sounding too diffused. The imaging is also fantastic with fully fleshed out images with good air/space between them. Images are clearly defined, without any blurring.

I also want to mention how quiet this tube is, and it has a super black background. This in turn really lets the details and little nuances come through in full effect. I believe the excellent construction of this tube, as well as the careful selection process of Apos, is what has lead to this super quiet and excellent performing tube.

As for some comparisons to some of my favorite NOS 6SN7's, I rolled the KenRad Black Glass 6SN7GT and the RCA Grey Glass 6SN7GT. The Reserve held its own and easily bested both of those tubes, with better transparency/detail and a more balanced sound top to bottom. The bass on the KenRad sounds bloated in the middbass, after hearing the super tight and deep bass of the Reserve. As for the RCA Grey Glass it was too slow, and muddy sounding with blurring of detail and images, and could not hang with the Reserve's excellent detail retrieval. I also rolled in some new production Tung Sol 6SN7's, and they were not in the same league as the Reserve. All this being said, I believe the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve is one of the best options sonically if one is looking for a 6SN7.

Now onto the value of this tube, and the pricing. I honestly think Apos was shooting for moon with the very high price and think they priced them a tad bit too high if I am being honest. That being said, there is something to be said for ease of purchase, and having a one year warranty. . .

All in all, I really enjoyed demoing this tube, and this tube I has given this old NOS tube guy hope for the future of New Production tubes. I think the Reserve is a tube that would work well in many different systems due to its excellent balance and transparency, and I think anyone would be happy to have it in their collection.

Happy listening to all and thanks for reading,

Wes

Nice review Wes. I think the question most people will be asking though is how do the Apso Reserve compare to psvanes.

I know we've had one person's opinion already but I think it would benefit all if there were more direct comparisons. I'm tempted myself but a little hesitant tbh.

 

[Wes S]

Nice review Wes. I think the question most people will be asking though is how do the Apso Reserve compare to psvanes.

I know we've had one person's opinion already but I think it would benefit all if there were more direct comparisons. I'm tempted myself but a little hesitant tbh.

Thanks and I totally agree.

I trust that one person's opinion as we have been on a very similar journey over the last few years, but would also love to confirm for myself as well. This situation is why I am not totally convinced the high pricing of the Reserve is totally justified. . .

 

[Hiker816]

Here is my review of this excellent sounding 6SN7.

Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve. The new production tube that can. . .

First off, I would like to thank Apos Audio for the opportunity to demo this tube. I have been an avid tube roller for years and have always favored NOS or OS tubes, as my few attempts of listening with current production tubes never did it for me. That being said, I have finally found a new production tube, that has all the attributes I look for in a tube, and actually blew my mind with it's performance and that is the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve.

Let's start with the bass, and this tube can slam. The bass is quite powerful and digs deep when called for. The subbass extension is excellent and tight, and can be felt with the right track. The middbass is punchy yet never bleeds into the mids, and the overall bass presentation is tight and extended and very well done. I actually don't think it can get any better.

Onto the mids, and they are extremely clean and transparent, with all the little nuances and details coming through in full effect. The mids have excellent linearity and you can hear all instruments clearly. The vocals are the star of the show here, and are present and a tad bit more forward than the rest of the mix, of which I prefer as I am a vocals lover and love being able to hear every little syllable and lip smack between words. The upper mids are very well implemented, and I am a bit sensitive in this area and they never get harsh.

The treble is well extended, airy, and very refined sounding. There is good sparkle up top, yet it never sounds forced or harsh. Treble heads will love this presentation.

Now onto the staging and imaging, and the Reserve is top notch in these categories as well. The staging has really good expansion in all directions, and is about as good as it gets for a 6SN7. The stage is open and airy without sounding too diffused. The imaging is also fantastic with fully fleshed out images with good air/space between them. Images are clearly defined, without any blurring.

I also want to mention how quiet this tube is, and it has a super black background. This in turn really lets the details and little nuances come through in full effect. I believe the excellent construction of this tube, as well as the careful selection process of Apos, is what has lead to this super quiet and excellent performing tube.

As for some comparisons to some of my favorite NOS 6SN7's, I rolled the KenRad Black Glass 6SN7GT and the RCA Grey Glass 6SN7GT. The Reserve held its own and easily bested both of those tubes, with better transparency/detail and a more balanced sound top to bottom. The bass on the KenRad sounds bloated in the middbass, after hearing the super tight and deep bass of the Reserve. As for the RCA Grey Glass it was too slow, and muddy sounding with blurring of detail and images, and could not hang with the Reserve's excellent detail retrieval. I also rolled in some new production Tung Sol 6SN7's, and they were not in the same league as the Reserve. All this being said, I believe the Apos Ray 6SN7 Reserve is one of the best options sonically if one is looking for a 6SN7.

Now onto the value of this tube, and the pricing. I honestly think Apos was shooting for moon with the very high price and think they priced them a tad bit too high if I am being honest. That being said, there is something to be said for ease of purchase, and having a one year warranty. . .

All in all, I really enjoyed demoing this tube, and this tube I has given this old NOS tube guy hope for the future of New Production tubes. I think the Reserve is a tube that would work well in many different systems due to its excellent balance and transparency, and I think anyone would be happy to have it in their collection.

Happy listening to all and thanks for reading,

Wes

Fantastic review--thanks! I took a flier and ordered one for my RAAL VM1a, in large part because of the very advantages of new production that you mentioned. I've been very pleasantly surprised--it's become my preferred 6SN7 in the VM1a. Agree the pricing is steep, though.

 

[Doug2507]

Next steps include manufacturing with the factory of our choosing to produce the product to our specifications

Can you guys elaborate on this? I'm also assuming you must have pretty in depth knowledge of tube design if the tube internals are being specified by yourselves. Can you let us all know how your version differs from PSVane?

I understand you have high binning standards for these which alone would put cost up but I'm more interested in the answer to these being fundamentally different in materials / design to PSVane's or if they're more or less the same tube, just selected to a tighter tolerance.

You can obviously tell there's some scepticism right now which is justified IMO. Being more transparent might go a long way to getting more of these out into the market, especially since that market is quite large taking into account not just end users, but also current tube amp manufacturers.

I'll take a leap of faith and order a pair today keeping the 45 day return window in mind.