The KT150 is a fantastic tube, but after a year they seemed less so, and I perceived that they were putting some strain on my beloved Jolida 502p (ear to speaker I could hear the Jolida softly saying, "help me…help me…"). Back in April I put in a set of matched and balanced (I assume "thetubestore" uses a small scale to balance these as they do seem to be the same weight) Gold Lion KT88s and they're sounding beautiful, and I think the gold lettering and their reputation have a large influence on my shallow and obvious "low threshold" sense of what's good. These tubes are REAL good, and my amp seems happy (!). The KT150s are still great, but it is harder now to tell how great they are since they're now in their boxes on a shelf…but hey…they're great at being in their boxes also. They're not trying to climb out, not getting dusty…friggin' great.
New KT150 tubes?
Has anyone any experience with these pretty new tubes. There are already one or 2 amps I know of, that use them. The review of one of these amps in a UK magazine suggested they were a little warmer and more natural sounding than the nearly new KT120's
The article also suggested they were a straight swap for KT120 based amps, with no adjustment necessary. They are more than twice the cost of KT120's, but still not too costly compared with NOS tubes. I know changing from KT88's or 90's to 120's. did require some amp modification. I have an ARC reference 75 and might want to try the new tubes at some point, ARC don't seem to have a customer E-mail service, to ask the question
The article also suggested they were a straight swap for KT120 based amps, with no adjustment necessary. They are more than twice the cost of KT120's, but still not too costly compared with NOS tubes. I know changing from KT88's or 90's to 120's. did require some amp modification. I have an ARC reference 75 and might want to try the new tubes at some point, ARC don't seem to have a customer E-mail service, to ask the question
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I have a Quad of KT150's in my highly modified Harman Kardon Citation 2....truely a great tube. The thread over at Audio Karma has gotten a lot of interest and controversy. http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/deuce-is-almost-done.674521/#post-9963377 Mike |
Geez, I got a real headache reading about all you poor people sitting on pins and needles waiting for this answer or that response from ARC. I learned early on in life that people who do not answer your questions when confronted with them numerous times means they don't know, or they know and do not want to say. Sell your overpriced ARC gear, buy from Mike Sanders at Quicksilver Audio. He answers questions within a day, was building with the KT-150 while ARC was stone-walling all of you, and his products will last longer than any of us will. |
I own a Jadis JA30 MK ll designed to use the KT150. No they are not a drop in replacement of the KT120 as they draw more current. Jadis gives the option to drop down to the family of KT120, 6550, EL34, etc. with a small DIY mod. inside the amp. Just change a strap etc. They are redesigning all of their amps. around the KT150 tube with the same mod. for the NOS guys with smaller tubes. I have not modded my amp. to try the smaller tubes including the KT120. This amp. sounds so good as is on my speakers I have no desire to switch at this stage. The just modded their JA 80 and 120 amps that have been in production sine the 80's. Many users of this amplifier all over the world just not as many here in the states. Pretty strong recommendation IMO of the tube. I owned ARC once and heard it many other times and it does not compare to the musicality of Jadis or the build quality. Just IMO of course. |
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