Best kt88 for VAC Avatar Super

Gentlemen,

Here are my observations from the front lines of the battle of the tubes... The four low level 6SN7s in my VAC Phi 200 needed replacement, so as an experiment, I rolled new issue Tung-Sols and burned them in for at least sixty hours. Then I received four 6SN7s (new Chinese) from Kevin which were picked and matched by Brent and then inserted into a Phi 200 at the vactory and only after they listened to them (in my exact amp) did they send them to me. Gotta love those guys!

There is no comparison, the fresh, unburned tubes from VAC completely outperformed the Russian made Tung-Sols. The difference is not subtle at all. The VAC sourced and tested 6SN7s simply shredded the russians.

And now, the KT-88s...
With the new driver tubes humming a happy tune in my amp, it was time for phase two:

I compared the chinese VAC KT-88s, (which came with the Phi 200, and sounded lush, detailed and gorgeous), with the Russian contenders , the Genelex Gold Lion reissue output tubes. I burned in the GGLs for sixty hours before critical listening (they sounded thin ROOTB) to make a valid comparison.

The GGLs sound light, open, untethered and musical, with a lot more inner detail and air. Compared to the lush, dark-leaning and romantic KT-88s from VAC, it's hard to say which is "better." The best way I can express it is that they are equally good, but different... it's more an issue of personal taste. Some reference tunes sounded better with one and vice versa. They are both very good tubes, and for now, the Lions are still in my amp and I'm enjoying my system immensely. If it wasn't such a PITA, I would swap them out as needed depending on what I'm spinning. That's not going to happen.

I hope this helps those of you considering rolling these readily available tubes in your amps. I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding my experiment.

Cheers!
Alón

Alonski, my experience has been similar. When I tried EH KT88, they were superb in terms of inner detail but lacked in bass and overall soundstage. The VAC tubes were very good in terms of bass but didn't have the definition of the EH, the genelec reissues seemed to be, for me, an awesome balance of strong bass, excellent imaging and detail, and overall that makes my avatar super do all things very well.

Maybe you could just get another set of phi 200s with the different tubes so that you could easily switch to the different tube set. ;).

Hey Maineiac,

I took your advice and today we're holding a bake sale for the Fee Phi Fo Fund (don't blame me, you gave me the idea!) raising money for another VAC Phi 200. Let's see, $10,000 divided by 50 cents... that's only twenty thousand Brownies we have to sell. If you ever tasted my wife's Brownies you too would believe this is not an unreasonable target.

Cheers!

Alonski, If you can ship, I will buy a batch. Let me know!!

All right, our first customer! Only 19,988 more Brownies to sell and I'll have that second Phi 200.

Thanks Maineiac for supporting this good cause. I'll ask our corporate CPA if your Brownies could be tax-deductible.