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Hey Steve! I hope you are well!I used the famous "Winged-C" 6550s from Svetlana (SED) years ago but I didn't know they ever made a KT88. That Svetlana factory closed a while back so no more winged-C.My favorite current production KT88 is Gold Lion KT-88, which is made by the American-owned company New Sensor in Saratov, Russia, the largest tube factory in the world, where they also make Electro Harmonix. Sovtek, Tung Sol, etc. Gold Lion is their top line. I buy them matched from Jim McShane. IMO they are every bit as good as the old 6550C, maybe a touch smoother. Commie Shuguang Black Treasure KT88 are probably very good based on my good experiences with their other tubes, but I've never tried or heard them.
Try the Shuguang Treasure KT88s. They have a similar big, bold sound, and even better tonality.
^ Back when I was using 12AU7s in my EE Minimax Preamp, I found the stock Shuguang cheapo $8 tube was the best for clarity, tone and balance of all the vintage, modern and exotic tubes I tried. But I was not seeking the warm, syrupy Amperex sound that most people prefer and the Shuguangs were the lowest distortion I had found. I smiled later when I read a post from SY on diyaudio who found Shuguang 12AU7 to have the lowest distortion of all 12AU7s he measured. But as my mastering engineer once said, "tubes are for adding distortion, not lowering it!" Chasing low distortion from tube amplifier is not for the meek and even harder on a budget.
I think you would like the Gold Lion KT-88 for the sound and build quality but they aren't cheap, my seller gets $114/pr!
Hi Tyson,I have been a little quiet about my intentions. I am attempting to find a combination of tubes that will give superior sonic performance without breaking the bank. The treasures will cost right up there with the Winged C 6550s. So far, I have been able to match some combinations pretty close to my reference, but needed a switch to just slightly alter the power supply for each combination. Maybe I am just being too picky. And I have been able to accomplish such without spending $600.00 or more on tubes.My reference has been the Winged C KT88/Orange letter Amperex 6dj8 PQ from Holland. Really incredible, accurate, natural sounding in my monoblock amplifier design. I have been able to come really really close with the JJ/JJ combination, SED/JJ with some PS adjustment via switch, and even Penta KT88/JJ combo with switchable PS adjustment, in descending order.I am just checking to see if there are anymore output tubes out there I could try that won't break the bank, give superior music reproduction, all the while saving the music lover money. cheerssteve
The Russian Ulianov 1625 have gone in my Russian supply shophttp://www.gstube.com/catalog/?key=1625&submit=Find
I remember that amperex tube glowed abnormally bright, maybe it was defective.
You mentioning the JJ 6922 reminded me that Stuart's low distortion tube test that I mentioned above was actually for 12AT7, not 12AU7. And his JJ AT7 did by far the best, by similar margin as your JJ e88 tests. I can't find his article on diy, so it must have been on his old website. So I tried the JJ 12AT7 gold pins and they were awesome, but they would get noisy after a couple months. Weirder still they self-healed with a couple weeks off then were quiet again for several months. Typical JJ love/hate story.
Maybe not Rich. I now remember some years back checking an Amperex and it had a bloated bottom end. Does that accurately describe what you found?
Very interesting. Some years ago I performed some distortion tests on some various 12at7s, and they had by far the highest distortion in the 12xx7 family line. I think I remember testing the JJ brand 12at7s and concluded the same. Nice work.
That is the same price as the Penta KT88s I saw. I wonder if they are from the same tube manufacturer, Shuguang?