About [LINLAI™ Global] – The official LINLAI™ EXPORT website:
[LINLAI™ Global] website is the OFFICIAL overseas arm of LINLAI™ Tube Factory – i.e ‘International Sales & Marketing Division of LINLAI™ Tubes’, dedicated ONLY for selected high quality tubes produced by Linlai™ factory.
Quality of tubes offered on this website is guaranteed of authenticity, quality and tightest quality control and screening, implemented from the factory all the way to the hands of our end users.
All LINLAI™ tubes screened, offered and sold through this website bear the exclusive export logo of [LINLAI™ Global] as shown below, to guarantee its quality selection process.
The exclusive use of a unique logo differentiates [Linlai™ Global] tubes from the generic tubes sold within the Greater China market (including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao) and those sold through grey market channels to the western export market.
The Uniqueness of [LINLAI™ Global] Tubes:
Our export ‘Linlai™ Global’ tubes are screened with electronic parameter curve charts best suited for western music reproduction. Tubes even when assembled the same way off the production line, do not all have the same parameter curves due to their wide spec variations. The factors we take into account when selecting our [Linlai™ Global] grade of tubes:
1) Aim to high degree of faithful reproduction of western music instruments, such as piano, acoustic and electric guitar, acoustic and electric bass / double bass, kick drums etc, which are common in western recordings but not as common in Asian music;
2) Create live-like sound image width and depth, and offer realistic balance across high, mid and bass frequencies, without exaggerating the ultra high frequencies (much of Asian music does focus more ultra high’s and Asian audiophiles are accustomed to such a type of sound).
LINLAI™ Tubes sold to vendors in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau bear a different domestic logo – which is written in either in Chinese character, or a simple spelling of ‘Lin Lai’ or ‘Lin Lai Tube’. Such tubes are not provided through the same quality selection process as our tubes bearing [Linlai™ Global] logo as shown above, and those tubes will NOT have warranty from [Linlai™ Global] export division. (Please do NOT contact us to resolve your quality and warranty issue through this website – they will not be answered by us.)
Linlai™ Factory recommends all overseas buyers to purchase with factory authorized vendors for your region, in order to validate your purchase warranty and avoid unnecessary financial losses due to quality issues.
Who is LINLAI™?
LINLAI™ is a brand name, and it is a phrase taken from an 2000-years-old ancient Chinese poem, praising ‘the Beauty of Music’.
LINLAI™ is a trademark belong to a NEW vacuum tube factory in China – formed by a team of engineers who officially exit Psvane prior to 2019. (This story script is an ‘encore’ of how Psvane was formed a decade ago, when a team of experienced engineers exited the state-owned Shuguang tube factory then due to dispute in profit sharing. In short, Linlai™ team split from Psvane due to irreconcilable disagreement on valuation of investments & rewards for contributions.)
About the LINLAI™ Team:
The team of LINLAI™ is led by the ex-VP Production of Psvane tube factory, Mr. S. J. Li. He is a Chinese navy veteran, now in his mid 40s but with decades of experience with vacuum tubes.
Li joined Chinese army at age of 18 and spent his military years in the Navy Fleet Missile Division in Northern China, a region that was, and still is, highly critical for China’s military defense for the Capital Region of Beijing. Li learnt his knowledge of vacuum tubes since then, because many Chinese military defense system during that time used vacuum tubes, and the navy missile division got the best quality vacuum tube supply from all over the world, including Europe, USA and then USSR.
With his military background, Li is well known to have a strict ‘no-nonsense management style’. It is a highly sought after skill in the complex vacuum tube production management – which many manual tasks are involved and quality control process is multi-dimensional. Li had been spearheading production for Shuguang tube factory, Guiguang tube factory (later bought out by Psvane), Psvane tube factory throughout his career, and now proudly running his own tube brand & factory – LINLAI™, in Changsha City, China. He took along a group of loyal followers from both Shuguang and Psvane and they share the spirit of entrepreneurship together. Li is also the key personnel involved in Psvane’s acquisition of TJ Full Music’s small signal tube production line after TJ Full Music founder passed away in his 80s.
[LINLAI™ Global] Brand Proposition:
[LINLAI™ Global] sets its goal to become a ‘Boutique High Value (i.e. High Performance to Price Ratio)’ vacuum tube brand – not a FACTORY giant like Psvane once aspired but eventually failed, but a BRAND which represents consistent quality and solid after-sale service, like what a western consumers would expect and accustomed to. Too many ‘made in China’ is just a factory but without commitment to a true brand, and quality is all over the place for making quick profit and quick short-lived market share. LINLAI™ is determined to be different from that crowd and match up or even surpass its western peers, through the creation of the quality-centric sub-brand, [Linlai™ Global].
In short, [LINLAI™ Global] doesn’t want to become just another ‘vacuum tubes Made in China’, but a real, world-class BRAND in the international vacuum tube industry, and operate to the western business standard.
What tubes does [LINLAI™ Global] include?
LINLAI™ started its product line with triode tubes including 300B, 2A3, 211, 845, 805, 101D and they also produce 274B rectifier and 6SN7 preamp tubes.
LINLAI™ have started to produce popular power tubes such as KT88/6550 at late 2020.
For full list of tubes produced by LINLAI™ and offered to overseas market, please visit the SHOP section of [LINLAI™ Global] website.
Should you purchase [LINLAI™ Global] Tubes?
There have been many many same models of triode tubes (such as 300B, 845, 805 etc) pumped out by the two major tube factories from China, Shuguang and Psvane, in the past 10 years, under their own brands or different OEM brands and series. Now comes the 3rd tube factory LINLAI™. So how do you choose among them?
Psvane is derived from Shuguang. LINLAI™ is derived from Psvane. It is no surprise to see some similarities across their tube offerings, since the engineers are hopping from one employer to another. However, each brand has its own core offering.
Shuguang is dominant in the entry level tube segment serving the Hi-Fi tube amp manufacturing wholesale market and guitar amp wholesale market. However, Shuguang has been in shutdown mode since 2019 with the sale of its urban land to real estate developer, and new factory relocation / re-opening to now (Jan 2021) is still unknown and uncertain. Will Shuguang return to tube production? This is a question to be answered and no one knows answer, since Shuguang is Chinese state owned.
Psvane has been active in Hi-Fi tube market and now is moving into producing small signal tubes (12AX7, 12AU7 etc) that fills the demand from the wholesale guitar amp market that left open by Shuguang. This diversification is likely distract some of Psvane’s focus from the upgrade Hi-Fi tube market.
LINLAI™ – As a young and upcoming brand, but not new to high end tube design and production, is exclusively focusing on Hi-Fi market. It has introduced two innovative series – Elite E-series with “Moly plate” for ultra high end, and the other DG-series with “Overhung filament” structure for the affordable yet high performance segment. Sonic feedback from early adopters has been very positive, let alone its competitive pricing compared to other Chinese tube brands. LINLAI™ has successfully cannibalized into Psvane and Shuguang’s market share in domestic China. LINLAI™ also produce a range of black bottle tubes, and WE replica tubes.
Are [LINLAI™ Global] tubes reliable?
[LINLAI™ Global] offer tubes that are carefully selected and screened right from the beginning so tube reliability is enhanced, compared to those tubes offered and sold in Chinese domestic market.
LINLAI™ tube factory uses self-developed industrial scale testing equipment for all tubes off production line, plus using industry’s most advanced computerized Amplitrex-AT1000 tube testing system to regularly spot verify its QC accuracy and consistency.
We hope the above information helps you to get to know [LINLAI™ Global] brand, and join our worldwide [LINLAI™ Global] user family.
Yours,
[LINLAI™ Global] Team