Genelex Gold Lion KT-88 reissued tubes


Has anyone purchased these tubes and what are your impressions of the sound?
virgo_ref
I ordered a quad of the Gold Lions today from cteche.com, which operates an eBay store. The price was $195 for a platinum factory-matched quad. According to New Sensor, "platinum matching process consists of a 24 hour tube burn-in period followed by a bias (plate) current measurement in milliamps." The factory matched tubes then have the measurements on the boxes, etc. I can't say how this matching process compares with the matching done by the reputable tube sellers, but the factory burn-in may be a good quality control check. Anyway, that's how I've chosen to go. C Tech also sells factory matched octets, fwiw. I'll report back. My amp is a Music Reference RM-200.
Have been using Genelex Gold Lion KT-88 reissued tubes for about 6 months and like them, a lot. Have switched to other amplifiers during this period, always nice coming back to them. Did use GE 6550's and tried some Russian tubes before, like these better, but has a lot to do with the type of sound you are after.
I am currently using both the Tungsol 6550's (in an Audio research Ca50) and the Gold Lion KT88 re-issues (in a Cayin A70t) These tubes are quite different sounding. The Tungsols being smoother with a rich midrange and have been ideal for warming up the (to my ears) thin sound of the ARC products. The Gold lion's have incredible extension on both the top and bottom and have a very clean but not dry midrange. Probably the best way for me to describe it is that the difference in sound between the triode and pentode modes of my Cayin A70t (which with the Cayin supplied KT88's was Dramatic) has been reduced to barely noticeable. This is far and away the best KT88 I have heard. FYI, I also currently own Sovetk KT88's,SED 6550's,Original Svetlana 6550's, GE 6550's and Valve Art KT88's for comparison. Hope this helps.
Geraldm121, Did you by chance try the 6550's in the Cayin and the GL's in the ARC? I'm using SED KT88's in the Cayin and I'm curious. I tried some SED 6550's and found them a bit dry in that unit (they remain my 6550's of choice in other amps).
KT88's in general don't seem to do well in the ARC. I have not tried the Gold Lions but I did try the KT88 Cayin/Shuguangs that came with the Cayin. They were very hard sounding (almost like bad solid state)and they came out immediately.
The Tungsol 6550's were quite good in the Cayin but not quite as detailed in the high end with a softer sound in general and a very lush bass. That said, I could live with that combination but I probably would change the 12ax7's from the the current Mullard re-issues to a crisper sounding tube like a Telefunken (which were too bright when used with the Gold Lions)or RFT. Currently the 12au7's in the Cayin are Telefunkens that I had saved for 20+years!