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RE: Tungsol 6550 - two dark plates or a black & a grey one ?

Posted by Joe Appierto on September 28, 2014 at 12:32:31:
"I'll be honest with you. Genalex KT88 reissues are dam good sounding tubes and they are very close to the originals and in many applications they are better."
My experience as well but it's funny with the original GEC/Genalux, sometimes they sounded kinda blah to me and other times, seemed to capture the essence of the music. And within the same application.
Tung-Sol black plate 6550s are my all time favorites as well although again, depending on the music, both the solid (black or grey) and three-hole grey plates each shine in their own way.
With all due respect to Natubes, they have the chronology incorrect. There are three types of Tung-Sol 6550s (not counting what they produced for RCA, Leslie, Carlsberg-Stromberg, etc.): black plate (always solid), grey plate solid and lastly three-hole grey plate. The black plates had three iterations: top getter only, top and side getter and finally three getter (top and two sides). Without looking through my collection, the top getter only and top and side used d-shaped sometime called horseshoe-shaped getter "rings" and then they moved to O-shaped getter rings.
Bottom line is that they invented the tube and got it right. Modern incarnations such as the New Sensor Tung-Sol 6550 are darn good tubes (as is their Genalex KT88) and other companies such as GE with their 6550A are worthy alternatives, but in my not humble opinion, the Tung-Sol black plate 6550 still takes the prize.
The fact that you're enjoying their smoothness, liquidity, natural sounding detail is a testament to them, I believe.
Enjoy!