The Devil wrote:


Ei KT90 type 3: These are UL monsters, giving bags of powerful sound,
clear and spacious soundstage and detailed, if slightly veiled,
midrange. In triode they failed to interest me. I can't for the life
of me figure out why so many people like them.


Because in my big, huge, powerful, Texas sized amps, they rock. Your
wimpy, polite, little home made amps can't handle them. Step up to some
real triode power and fire up a Tesla coil with your amps! Not only does
the sound of the EI Kt 90 rock, the Tesla coil beats to to rhythm
shooting bolts of electricity into my head at 30 feet!!!

Doktor Kernith ( audio Tesla coil inventor)

The Devil said:

Ei KT90 type 3: These are UL monsters, giving bags of powerful sound,
clear and spacious soundstage and detailed, if slightly veiled,
midrange. In triode they failed to interest me. I can't for the life
of me figure out why so many people like them. Bland, uninteresting,
lackluster mids, but still powerful and with prodigious bass
performance. Gave these another go recently and was glad to pull 'em
out of the octal sockets.

There seem to be several stages of quality with Ei KT90s.
The latter series are said to be horribly unreliable and to draw
excessive screen grid current at normal operating bias.

Svetlana 6550C: Transistors in a bottle. Almost. No, thanks. Going
back to dealer.

Funny. I've retubed several commercial amps with Svet 6550s (UL) and
never had complaints from customers.
This was in the '90s, though.

Svetlana KT88: Beautiful. One of the best KT88s in current production.
Just as enjoyable to listen to as the GECs. Very spacious sound,
clear, no valve 'warmth', just plenty of natural-souding midrange
information. Fascinating bass performance, agile and powerful yet also
picking up textures other valves (and every transistor amp I own or
have heard) miss. I love this valve. It lacks the midrange dynamics of
the GECs and CVCs (mentioned in a moment), but it also sounds open and
airy, whereas the other valves sound darker, but in a very appealing
way.

Agreed. A fine valve.

CVC Gold Lion: Very close replica of the GEC. Even has the three
getters and hole-free plate structure. Exceptionally well-made valve
that sounds out of this world fantastic in every respect. Takes at
least an hour to come alive, though, and there is little in the way of
bass output at first. But boy oh boy when these have warmed up do they
sound great. A smidgen of warmth--not bloom--to the sound that is just
perfect and sounds entirely natural. Very lifelike rendition of
everything. Highly, highly addictive to listen to; I could spend a
month locked away with these listening to my favourite recordings.
They definitely won't be going back (I've asked my dealer to get me
another couple of sets as spares).

I've had reliability issues with CVC EL34s and 6L6 GC's, again back in
the '90s. Maybe they've solved their problems (or Chelmer buys them
from another supplier these days :-)

Tesla KT88: Huge soundstage and very funky-sounding bass, not entirely
natural but compelling nonetheless. No fatigue at all with these. Less
top end expression than the Svetlana KT88s but they seemed to have an
irresistible mix of qualities that kept me listening to them. Excelled
on classical. These are no match for GECs or CVCs in terms of musical
truthfulness, but we all like to be told a good tale now and then, and
these tell a very interesting tale indeed. Recordings are outlines for
this valve, but they're definitely keepers. Love 'em.

These (JJ) are the same valves I use in my PP triode monos.
Definitely a bargain (15 euro/pc here).

Shuguang KT88: Good grief. This one tells a tale I most certainly
*don't* like. Horrible. Going back.

Would you believe me when I told you that I have a matched quad of
6550s by Shuguang that sing like angels in my amps? Don't know their
date of manufacturing, but they're definitely pre-1995. The worst
Chinese valve period, so to speak
They're not able to take more than 350 V though.

I'm told that current production is more reliable (haven't tried yet).

I'm finishing a deal with the former importer of McIntosh and Radford
in the Netherlands and I expect many banana boxes with NOS tubes to
come my way. So far, I've spotted some GEC KT66s and 88s inthere, as
well as some rare 7591As and ****loads of US made 6L6.

There *is* a god, and he is indirectly heated.

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."

"Sander deWaal" wrote in message
...
The Devil said:

Ei KT90 type 3: These are UL monsters, giving bags of powerful sound,
clear and spacious soundstage and detailed, if slightly veiled,
midrange. In triode they failed to interest me. I can't for the life
of me figure out why so many people like them. Bland, uninteresting,
lackluster mids, but still powerful and with prodigious bass
performance. Gave these another go recently and was glad to pull 'em
out of the octal sockets.

There seem to be several stages of quality with Ei KT90s.
The latter series are said to be horribly unreliable and to draw
excessive screen grid current at normal operating bias.

Svetlana 6550C: Transistors in a bottle. Almost. No, thanks. Going
back to dealer.

Funny. I've retubed several commercial amps with Svet 6550s (UL) and
never had complaints from customers.
This was in the '90s, though.

Svetlana KT88: Beautiful. One of the best KT88s in current production.
Just as enjoyable to listen to as the GECs. Very spacious sound,
clear, no valve 'warmth', just plenty of natural-souding midrange
information. Fascinating bass performance, agile and powerful yet also
picking up textures other valves (and every transistor amp I own or
have heard) miss. I love this valve. It lacks the midrange dynamics of
the GECs and CVCs (mentioned in a moment), but it also sounds open and
airy, whereas the other valves sound darker, but in a very appealing
way.

Agreed. A fine valve.

CVC Gold Lion: Very close replica of the GEC. Even has the three
getters and hole-free plate structure. Exceptionally well-made valve
that sounds out of this world fantastic in every respect. Takes at
least an hour to come alive, though, and there is little in the way of
bass output at first. But boy oh boy when these have warmed up do they
sound great. A smidgen of warmth--not bloom--to the sound that is just
perfect and sounds entirely natural. Very lifelike rendition of
everything. Highly, highly addictive to listen to; I could spend a
month locked away with these listening to my favourite recordings.
They definitely won't be going back (I've asked my dealer to get me
another couple of sets as spares).

I've had reliability issues with CVC EL34s and 6L6 GC's, again back in
the '90s. Maybe they've solved their problems (or Chelmer buys them
from another supplier these days :-)

Tesla KT88: Huge soundstage and very funky-sounding bass, not entirely
natural but compelling nonetheless. No fatigue at all with these. Less
top end expression than the Svetlana KT88s but they seemed to have an
irresistible mix of qualities that kept me listening to them. Excelled
on classical. These are no match for GECs or CVCs in terms of musical
truthfulness, but we all like to be told a good tale now and then, and
these tell a very interesting tale indeed. Recordings are outlines for
this valve, but they're definitely keepers. Love 'em.

These (JJ) are the same valves I use in my PP triode monos.
Definitely a bargain (15 euro/pc here).

Shuguang KT88: Good grief. This one tells a tale I most certainly
*don't* like. Horrible. Going back.

Would you believe me when I told you that I have a matched quad of
6550s by Shuguang that sing like angels in my amps? Don't know their
date of manufacturing, but they're definitely pre-1995. The worst
Chinese valve period, so to speak
They're not able to take more than 350 V though.

I'm told that current production is more reliable (haven't tried yet).

I'm finishing a deal with the former importer of McIntosh and Radford
in the Netherlands and I expect many banana boxes with NOS tubes to
come my way. So far, I've spotted some GEC KT66s and 88s inthere, as
well as some rare 7591As and ****loads of US made 6L6.

There *is* a god, and he is indirectly heated.

Now, I had heard that there was some legal wrangling between
Svetlana and Sovtek, and that Sovtek now owns the Svetlana name,
and that current Svetlana branded tubes are really of Sovtek design and
manufacture, and that the current tubes of (old) Svetlana
design and manufacture are now branded SED (winged "c" logo).
So, I don't exactly know which Svetlana tubes Devil was talking about.

"Clyde Slick" wrote in message
...

"Sander deWaal" wrote in message
...
The Devil said:

Ei KT90 type 3: These are UL monsters, giving bags of powerful sound,
clear and spacious soundstage and detailed, if slightly veiled,
midrange. In triode they failed to interest me. I can't for the life
of me figure out why so many people like them. Bland, uninteresting,
lackluster mids, but still powerful and with prodigious bass
performance. Gave these another go recently and was glad to pull 'em
out of the octal sockets.

There seem to be several stages of quality with Ei KT90s.
The latter series are said to be horribly unreliable and to draw
excessive screen grid current at normal operating bias.

Svetlana 6550C: Transistors in a bottle. Almost. No, thanks. Going
back to dealer.

Funny. I've retubed several commercial amps with Svet 6550s (UL) and
never had complaints from customers.
This was in the '90s, though.

Svetlana KT88: Beautiful. One of the best KT88s in current production.
Just as enjoyable to listen to as the GECs. Very spacious sound,
clear, no valve 'warmth', just plenty of natural-souding midrange
information. Fascinating bass performance, agile and powerful yet also
picking up textures other valves (and every transistor amp I own or
have heard) miss. I love this valve. It lacks the midrange dynamics of
the GECs and CVCs (mentioned in a moment), but it also sounds open and
airy, whereas the other valves sound darker, but in a very appealing
way.

Agreed. A fine valve.

CVC Gold Lion: Very close replica of the GEC. Even has the three
getters and hole-free plate structure. Exceptionally well-made valve
that sounds out of this world fantastic in every respect. Takes at
least an hour to come alive, though, and there is little in the way of
bass output at first. But boy oh boy when these have warmed up do they
sound great. A smidgen of warmth--not bloom--to the sound that is just
perfect and sounds entirely natural. Very lifelike rendition of
everything. Highly, highly addictive to listen to; I could spend a
month locked away with these listening to my favourite recordings.
They definitely won't be going back (I've asked my dealer to get me
another couple of sets as spares).

I've had reliability issues with CVC EL34s and 6L6 GC's, again back in
the '90s. Maybe they've solved their problems (or Chelmer buys them
from another supplier these days :-)

Tesla KT88: Huge soundstage and very funky-sounding bass, not entirely
natural but compelling nonetheless. No fatigue at all with these. Less
top end expression than the Svetlana KT88s but they seemed to have an
irresistible mix of qualities that kept me listening to them. Excelled
on classical. These are no match for GECs or CVCs in terms of musical
truthfulness, but we all like to be told a good tale now and then, and
these tell a very interesting tale indeed. Recordings are outlines for
this valve, but they're definitely keepers. Love 'em.

These (JJ) are the same valves I use in my PP triode monos.
Definitely a bargain (15 euro/pc here).

Shuguang KT88: Good grief. This one tells a tale I most certainly
*don't* like. Horrible. Going back.

Would you believe me when I told you that I have a matched quad of
6550s by Shuguang that sing like angels in my amps? Don't know their
date of manufacturing, but they're definitely pre-1995. The worst
Chinese valve period, so to speak
They're not able to take more than 350 V though.

I'm told that current production is more reliable (haven't tried yet).

I'm finishing a deal with the former importer of McIntosh and Radford
in the Netherlands and I expect many banana boxes with NOS tubes to
come my way. So far, I've spotted some GEC KT66s and 88s inthere, as
well as some rare 7591As and ****loads of US made 6L6.

There *is* a god, and he is indirectly heated.

Now, I had heard that there was some legal wrangling between
Svetlana and Sovtek, and that Sovtek now owns the Svetlana name,
and that current Svetlana branded tubes are really of Sovtek design and
manufacture, and that the current tubes of (old) Svetlana
design and manufacture are now branded SED (winged "c" logo).
So, I don't exactly know which Svetlana tubes Devil was talking about.



http://thetubestore.com/svetlana.html

"Clyde Slick" said:

Now, I had heard that there was some legal wrangling between
Svetlana and Sovtek, and that Sovtek now owns the Svetlana name,
and that current Svetlana branded tubes are really of Sovtek design and
manufacture, and that the current tubes of (old) Svetlana
design and manufacture are now branded SED (winged "c" logo).
So, I don't exactly know which Svetlana tubes Devil was talking about.

You can read more about this at:
http://www.jogis-roehrenbude.de/
Click on "Rohren-Geschichtliches".
Also, more on this by Jim McShane at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/jimmcshane/

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."