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So after years with KT150 I recently went back to the GL KT88 and must say I was very surprised with the outcome. My preamp is a Shindo Aurieges going into Quicksilver V4 mono blocks with 120 watts of output. Speakers are a very hard to drive Kef Reference 1 Meta, efficacy of 85 db with a 4 Ω (min. 3.2 Ω).
The KT150s are what I would say in a word, base kings! Never realized a tube on its own could add so much base presence? Think of what a WE300b does to the midrange of its presentation. The degree of impressiveness is like to an equal of what the KT150 does to base presentation. Mind blowing!
As we all know prices of these tubes in general have gone up, especially the Russian stuff which now carries an embargo of 35% so I've been told by Mike Sanders over at Quicksilver. Who by the way has gone back to shipping out product with KT88s vs KT150s which are optimal for his newest transformers being currently used. All due to production limitations, costs and poor production out of Russia. Mike's tube screening methods are rigorous to which results in many rejections before he's confident in tube sound quality and longevity. Thus off the table till supply chain changes, prices adjust and Russia stops its EU aggression. So we wait till that day.
My current KT150s,(4 tubes per side, 8 in all), purchased from Mike at QuickSilver were sent to me Nov. of 2017. Prior to that when I purchased the amps new, they came with standard Chines KT88s in Nov. 2011, but I digress. Back to the KT150s, with regular use, these guys still hold rock sold bias but have started to diminish in the highs. 6 years on each set, damn Mike you know your tube grading, but at some point they start to give up their full sq potential.
So I bite the bullet and find a set of 8 platinum factory matched(whatever) Golden Lion KT88s through another dealer that promises burnin and matching within 5%(industry standard I'm told)?
Get them and install, bias set at a low but Quicksilver recommended 40ma for the duration of the breakin period. I can get to 55ma according to Mike as a max but will impact life expectancy. Anyway, what has surprised me during these few early days of breakin is how fricken base heavy driven the KT150s were. All good I think if you like base heavy emphasis on your music but for me it showed just how it takes over the entire audio presentation. Far from a neutral tube presentation and I think like most I lost sight of that when I first installed them KT150s, and was frankly wowed by the base explosiveness , I have tubes now that sound like solid state base. Great right? Well not really because now that I went back to the KT88, I've realized how well balanced this tube is and what I was gaining prior to the KT150 was a more balanced linear tube presentation. If it weren't for the limited availability and pricing I likely would have just retuned with the KT150 but as luck has it, I had to make adjustments that put me back into a place I started at a better place I think? Now I wait for breakin to complete but already happy with tone, dynamics and top to bottom presentation. Just my own cautionary tale of a tube guy becoming content with a status quo till forced to make changes. 💡
Thanks for reading! Comments?
d/s
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