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In Reply to: RE: Reissue GL or Psvane KT88 II posted by Mossback on June 14, 2016 at 17:12:35
I wonder how many people bought the GL reissue and gave up after 100 hours?
A few unfortunately and it's to their own detriment because the reissues and the Psvane and the Shuggie Treasures are all dynamite sounding tubes. Thanks for chiming in. It always helps to hear from the people that own the originals and the reissues. At least many understand that we have nothing to gain or loose by telling the truth as we don't sell tubes.
MB,if you go back to my posts around 2005 to 2007,everyone was on the vintage tube kick and they used to bad mouth new production tubes as not being nearly as good..At one time this was the case but ever since the reissues came out along with many other fine tubes,the bad mouthing subsided.. I would always tell people if they keep buying vintage tubes and none of the new production ones,tubes will never get better because they won't have money to invest in new equipment and better materials..Now people are buying new tubes and have been for a while.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
Edits: 06/14/16Follow Ups:
My Carvers came with the stock Shuggie KT88's and although I never owned NOS KT88's, these sound pretty damn good. The amps are going on 4 years old and have tons of hours on them, and they still sing. Perhaps the amps DC restoration circuit helps on longevity. Bias never drifted. Driven by a Dehavilland UltraVerve pre with amps driving Legacy Focus SE's.
The one place I can't get as much tone out out of new production power tubes are guitar/bass amps but it may have to do with how they break up etc. In a Ampeg SVT nothing seems to get near a GE 6550A. In a Marshall a Mullard, pre JJ Tesla or RTF el34 or GE 6550A. Maybe Fenderlover can weigh in if he has the same experience.For stereo though I agree although it's hard for me to pay so much as the Goldlion or etc without knowing if they have some added durability. A Electro Harmoinix 6CA7 in a amp such as a ST70 sounds mighty good to me and isn't priced at a premium.
Edits: 06/15/16
The GE 6550A was designed for bass guitar amp service. It happens to be a pretty darned good HIFI tube too. St. Petersburg made 6550Cs were a somewhat tolerable substitute, but they too are "extinct".
The best suggestion I can make for bass guitar amp service is "reissue" GL KT88s and modify the units to include screen grid current limiting resistors. AFAIK, nothing else in this class of beam power tetrodes comes close to the GE 6550A in the g2 toughness dept.
Eli D.
Hi Eli, I usually just use Sovtek 6550we's. They seem to do okay and sound good but are no GE 6550A.
Are the screen grid current limiting resistors that you speak of 100ohm 1/2 watt resistors?
Thanks.
From Russia, China and ever Tesla/KR.
Recall selling the Russian and Chinese re-issues (maybe didn't wait 200 hours?) as they were not anywhere near NOS.
Tesla/KR were the best of the bunch back then, if memory can be trusted
That said, I have heard the new PSVANE KT-88 and would have to say BETTER than any of my NOS solid plate Tung Sol. Sorry, no NOS Gold Lions to compare to.
But I'm a SET guy now so who makes the best sounding 300B these days?
Recall selling the Russian and Chinese re-issues (maybe didn't wait 200 hours?) as they were not anywhere near NOS.
If you are referring to the KT88,the mid 2000s is when the new production KT88s started to come into their own. Shuggie/Penta with the solid plates and then you had the SEDs,and later the Gold Lion reissue.Even JJ made a nice sounding KT88 when they weren't self destructing or the getters coming loose.Once the Gold Lion reissues hit their stride,they have become the standard of the new KT88s overall for price and quality.The Shuggie Treasures are also on par with them sonically however,they are also more expensive.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
The GL KT66 reissues are as good as the GEC greyglass KT66?? Call me sceptical but you are forcing me to try them. My GECs are not getting any younger! Michael, have you tried the Treasure or Pisvane KT66?
I have not experienced NOS GEC KT88, but I can confirm that the Pisvane greyglass KT88s are great sounding tubes fully competitive with any NOS output tubes I have used. The Treasure KT120 blackglass were even better sounding but would not achieve steady bias in my amp. Once they fix the QC and get ample stocks here in North American with local dealer testing (instead of the "testing" done in China), those will be the ones to get.
Meanwhile, I have been running the NOS Russian 6P3S-E in the Rogue for the last 2 months and not missing KT88/KT120s in the least. This is a quad I got from Jim McShane about 5 years ago, they have been used for over 3 thousand hours, still test new, hold perfect bias and sound great. Even though the power output is probably only half of what KT88s put out in the amp, these still have the grunt to easily run my hard to drive Acoustat speakers. Great tubes still worth seeking out!
Let me also point out that in a high bias current amp like a Citation II the KT-88s break in much quicker. Whether your ears "break-in" quicker I can't say, but I agree with Mikey. I had original Genalex KT-88s - and the reissues are every bit as good or even better.
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