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In Reply to: Re: KT66 initial physical comparisons between Saratov and Sino posted by nightdoggy on April 13, 2007 at 03:36:12:
Ill tell you Doggy..I own like 90 plus tube amps all vintage but 3 of them and I bought them over the last 30 years for when you could go to garage sales and pick them up for 5 to 50 dollars each in most cases..Many are duplicates like dyna mk3s and integrateds as well as macs and heaths and citations etc but I only have so many genelex kt88s and kt66s and RCA 6l6gc black plates and I thought gee mikey,you better find another alternative if you want to keep these amps all running when you go to your grave.
I started to realize when I would take new old stock mullard el34s or gene kt88s out of the box,they wouldnt sound as good as my old half used up tubes of the same brand.
Thats what got me investigating why and I started buying tubes that had the claim to be identical copies and you have to admit,the kt66HP is about the cloest I have seen to an identical copy of the original clear bottle genelex. You hit on the head with the thick support rods and the structure and its sound lived up to its name.
What I like about groove tubes is,they have this distortion rating and curve of operation of each tube with a numerical system and it makes one hell of a difference as far as getting the right tubes for hifi amps.I have found major differences when I use a 5 rating tube in my heath w5ms as opposed to a 2 or a 7 rating.
I used to buy a lot of untested bulk tubes from Groove tubes also..They used to have a box of 50 untested bulk but brand new of the KT66hp for 450 dollars.
If you like those tubes you may be able to contact GT and they may have a few quads left.
Follow Ups:
Yeah I scored a lot of vintage at good prices too. Most were from yard/garage sales. That's harder to do now that everyone thinks selling on ebay will make them rich. I think a lot of the vintage is gone for good or rusting out in a garage or basement somewhere. The ones on ebay look pretty rough usually.
I grew up in Portland Maine. I remember walking to school in the '60s. Sometimes on trash day there would be an old tube "thing" sitting on a trash can, either to hold the cover on or because it did not fit. My pals and I would pull the tubes and throw them up in the air. Then they smashed on the pavement. I'll burn in hell for that one.
I bought three sets of the KT66 "HP" because I don't think any of the new ones, such as the New Sensor attempts will touch it. It looks bulletproof with the very thick, pure glass and the heavy wires, etc.
Thanks for the info too.
I run that tube in a 5 I think in my very most tone GIANT..A Whitney DV-66. You would have to hear this guitar amp to believe..a pedal on this one is a SIN..
Yes your probably right but I heard reports that the tungsol kt66 is very good but its extremely expensive.Now that looks like one of its own..You are correct in that the kt66hp is built like a brick shit house and even the glass on the Russian and Checzk tubes seem like a winshield on your car.
I also wanted to clarify from my last post about my NOS genelex and mullards and RCA black plates not sounding as good as older used up ones.This is only until the new old stock tubes get broken in themselves and then they take off and sound superb.
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