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It looks like Mr Matthews has solved his problems with the russian mafia and now he is giving us the new Gold Lion KT88. Wonder if it is any good....
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They look kinda cool. I suspect they will be "GLINOS" tho-- Gold Lion In Name Only. I sincerely hope to be 100% wrong. GOD it'd be nice to be wrong, and get $240/quad KT88s that have the $2k sound. What I know for sure is that while New Sensors' reissues of the TungSol 6550, Mullard EL34, and TungSol 12AX7 are of decent quality and reliability, they sound absolutely nothing like the originals. I'm not saying they are bad; they just don't sound anything like the originals. If I were a gambling man, I'd bet on the Shuguang KT88 solid plate GEC copy to sound WAY better, and WAY closer to the original. Having heard the Shuguang KT88 for extended periods, I can say it's FAIRLY close, and the differences from the REAL Gold Lion KT88 are kinda nice, in a way. Finally, no matter HOW GREAT the OTHER Gold Lion KT88 reissue(at least in the land of maybe, possibly, gonna be made)Western Electrics' "Gold Lion KT88" (due in 2017!)turns out to be... at the projected $1700 a quad price (really)the New Sensor tube s a real problem. Western Elec totally dropped the ball delaying; New Sensors price, and the fact that they did it first will very much dissipate ANY buzz that Western might still have surrounding their reissue plans. IF the New Sensor turns out not all THAT great, that too will hurt Western Elec as audiophiles will think "Yeah, here's ANOTHER overpriced, inferior modern production reissue" Just my opinion. I'm sure these Gold Lion KT88s will have New Sensors' famed reliability and as such be a success, though. People seem to like the E-H KT88; the question will be "Is this 'Gold Lion' that much better as to be sonically worth the price of 2 quads of E-H'KT88?"
The original Gold Lions were selected from normal production GEC KT88s as I understand it. They selected the best ones out of a batch according to some parameters like reverse grid current, gm, etc. BTW, does anybody knows what these parameters were?Therefore I assume New Sensor is selecting their "Gold Lions" out their current production "Svetlanas" or maybe EH, putting them in a Gold Lion box and charging $60 a pop. Shrewd businessman Mr Matthews...
"Therefore I assume New Sensor is selecting their "Gold Lions" out their current production "Svetlanas" or maybe EH, putting them in a Gold Lion box and charging $60 a pop. Shrewd businessman Mr Matthews..."None of the New Sensor family KT-88/6550 tubes have gold plated grid wires. The new tube does.
Have you tested or have any experience with these? And what is the big deal with gold plated grid wires? The JJ KT88s which you seem to dislike have gold plated grid wires.
Gold plated grids have lower grid emission ("gas") than unplated grids, it's a significant improvement.But the plated grid wires alone by and of themselves don't make a tube good or bad. I dislike and don't sell the JJ for other reasons.
I only mentioned the grid wires to illustrate that the tube was not a rebadged EH or Sovtek branded tube as you had alleged.The supply of the new tube is VERY limited. I talked to NS today and there is no stock I can use until the next shipment, so I don't have any to test or examine.
Hopefully, the tubes will live up to their billing in terms of sound. The plate structure is obviously different from the originals, though.
Has anybody actually LISTENED to these tubes?
They were just released in the last 7-10 days or so! Obviously then there is no real listening experience to tap into.
Has anybody actually LISTENED to these tubes?
Has anybody acutally LISTENED to these tubes?
There is likely to be imo no sonic comparison to the origs. Just like the new production "Tung Sols", "Mullards", etc.The new tubes may be decent, functional tubes, but they are not GECs, and they will not sound like GECs.
A good analogy is comparing the sound of a ten dollar vinyl re-issue to an original pressing. The difference is obvious.
Based on the results of the other "reissues", my guess is that the the new Gold Lions will likely be a decent tube, but nothing like the originals. It's misleading of New Sensor to hype their tube as a re-creation "down to the finest detail" when they didn't even bother to try to duplicate the obvious physical structures of the original tube.
I've done business with the seller, Jason, many times.
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Tin-eared audiofool and obsessed landscape fotografer.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jeffreybehr
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