Shuguang Black Treasure Tubes

dhart86

I am looking to buy so KT-88 Black Treasure Tubes and I would like to know if anybody knows of trusted sites to buy genuine Black Treasures. I now about Grant Fidelity, but wondered if there were any alternative sites/vendor. Tell me about your experience.

Dawgfish

I have 6 of them that I have bought from one of the Chinese sites you see on E-bay. I'm having problems with 2 of them. I contacted the seller since they do have a 12 month warranty and the seller has offered to replace them after I pay to send them back to China and have them tested. There's no telling how long it will take for the whole process to play out and who knows if they will end up honoring the warranty. The seller questioned if my amp was defective. I have used them on two different amps and the problem(shorting) occurred with both amps. In addition I have 7 different quads of power tubes that have never given me a problem with either amp. The problem is definitely with the treasures. My advice is to buy them from Grant Fidelity or another trusted North American seller.

On a positive note the Treasures are absolutely the best sounding power tubes I've ever heard including some uber expensive NOS types. They are worth paying a little more from Grant Fidelity and such to get quality, tested, and trusted tubes. They will take the performance of your amp and system in general to the next level.

dhart86

Dawgfish wrote: »

I have 6 of them that I have bought from one of the Chinese sites you see on E-bay. I'm having problems with 2 of them. I contacted the seller since they do have a 12 month warranty and the seller has offered to replace them after I pay to send them back to China and have them tested. There's no telling how long it will take for the whole process to play out and who knows if they will end up honoring the warranty. The seller questioned if my amp was defective. I have used them on two different amps and the problem(shorting) occurred with both amps. In addition I have 7 different quads of power tubes that have never given me a problem with either amp. The problem is definitely with the treasures. My advice is to buy them from Grant Fidelity or another trusted North American seller.

On a positive note the Treasures are absolutely the best sounding power tubes I've ever heard including some uber expensive NOS types. They are worth paying a little more from Grant Fidelity and such to get quality, tested, and trusted tubes. They will take the performance of your amp and system in general to the next level.

Thanks Dawgfish
I appreciate your input and experience. Your probably right about getting them from grant fidelity

thsmith

I bought my Treasure KT88s and other tubes from Helen at JJYAUDIO. I think George has bought from her as well. Might ping him.

http://jjyaudio.com/products01.asp?id=314&menuid=255

polkfarmboy

Grant Fidelity no longer sells them and sells a new psvane tube for a super high price

Dawgfish

Thanks for the link Tracy! That's a really good price on them.

I bought mine from here: http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=230606628836&index=17&nav=SEARCH&nid=48961646890

Could just be my bad luck that I received 2 bad out 6. If it was just 1 I wouldn't be skeptical, but 2... Hopefully they'll honor their warranty.

george daniel

thsmith wrote: »

I bought my Treasure KT88s and other tubes from Helen at JJYAUDIO. I think George has bought from her as well. Might ping him.

http://jjyaudio.com/products01.asp?id=314&menuid=255

Yep,, thats the place-- I bought a quad of 6CA7's,, great folks to deal with,,very reliable!

dhart86

thsmith wrote: »

I bought my Treasure KT88s and other tubes from Helen at JJYAUDIO. I think George has bought from her as well. Might ping him.

http://jjyaudio.com/products01.asp?id=314&menuid=255

See.....that's what I'm talking about!!! Thanks thsmith and George........I will be trying to place an order thru their online request system. How doe that work....

Anyway, thsmith, I can always count on you to get in the conversation about treasure tubes(lol). I know you like them and I know why. The CV-181-V (6sn7) popped my cherry on the treasures

Thanks again guys!

thsmith

I usually send an email to Helen and she responds with a good price and then I ask her to invoice me using paypal.

dhart86

thsmith wrote: »

I usually send an email to Helen and she responds with a good price and then I ask her to invoice me using paypal.

Thanks thsmith, I'll try her today

zingo

I've only purchased Shuguang Treasure and Psvane tubes from GF, but did have a good experience each time.

dhart86

thsmith wrote: »

I bought my Treasure KT88s and other tubes from Helen at JJYAUDIO. I think George has bought from her as well. Might ping him.

http://jjyaudio.com/products01.asp?id=314&menuid=255

Thanks for the link brotha......just ordered a quad yesterday & everything was as smooth as you described

thsmith

Helen will take care of you.

dragon1952

I ordered a quad from a Chinese seller on Ebay also. I had to send one back after around 6 months because it failed. Replacement was no hassle. I think I bought the original quad in around July 2011 and they only lasted until Feb 2013 when the 3 originals wouldn't hold bias anymore. Not exactly sure how long that had been an issue. I don't think they lasted for crap though although they sounded excellent. I don't know, mine were possible seconds (or thirds) or something. As a side note, I dropped one of them and broke it. Examining it I couldn't tell one difference between the way it looked and a regular Shuguang KT88. Exact same construction, I didn't notice any color differences even between any of the metals. Maybe the 'improved' materials aren't visible, or??? Just sayin'

Mikey081057

I also ordered my KT-88 50 years treasures from China... a matched quad from Hanshare on ebay, and he had great price and the quality isoutstanding... gotem in 3 days $259 for the quad with express shipping.. only have about 10 hours on them but you won't regret these bottls for sure.