Anyone using KT88's in D series ARC gear?


Hi, I just bought an original ARC D-70 (which is currently down.:0(
Anyhow, I own a matched quad set of Golden Aero KT88's that are like new.
Is it possible to substitute these for the 6550's in the D-70?
Anyone running KT88's instead of 6550's in their older ARC gear?
Also, i am having a problem with my speaker cables as they are terminated with spades and won't fit the original ARC speaker terminals, any suggestions?
128x128daveyf

I recommend using ARC for repairs and maintenance. It may cost a little more, but it will be done right. You will never know the true sound of your amplifier if it is not set up properly.
Hello Davey,
For starters, Gold Lion KT88s do not fit inside the ARC D-70 tube cage, the tube bottles are too fat.
Vampire makes spades sized for barrier strips. I believe the part # is Bar-8.
You may also want to search Banana Spade plug Adapter.
Good luck
I've had my D70s with Svetlanas for quite a while. I did think about going to KT88s but the amps worked fine so why mess with them?

However, I did have the amps modified with five way binding posts soldered to the 16 ohm outputs.

It was a much better solution since most cables that I own nowadays use bananas instead of spades.

I just sold one of them and got a pretty good price so the modification with the five binding posts did not impact the resale price, if anything it helped because the amp is much more user friendly WITH NO DEGRADATION OF SOUND!!!!

Besides, those small barrier strips would not even fit Kimber 4TC, nevermind anything bigger.
Hi Esporma, I solved the barrier strip problem by using bi-wire pairs of Nordost Red Dawn. The Nordost factory terminated the amp end with a narrow spade that works well with the ARC. BTW, I still believe that these amps are a PHENOM
BARGAIN at the price that they are selling for currently. No other amp or even any other piece of kit even comes close to this kind of a deal. I really do NOT understand why these amps are frankly been given away at this time.