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Black glass KenRad 6SN7s take the cake

I've been experimenting with 6SN7s in my VAC 70/70:

ElectroHarmonix: good tube! and great for the price. Much better than I though it'd be, but ultimately sounded too edgy and sterile. Good control throughout, and good detail.

Sylvania VT231: twinkly and brilliant; great detail, tight bass, but much less fatiguing than the ElectroHarmonix; nice and smooth, but still lacking in the mids for me.

TungSol black glass, round getter: better than the Sylvania, in that it was a bigger sound. Lost the twinkly and brilliant quality. Good detail. Good overall, balanced tube. Nothing outstanding I thought, relative to the other tubes I tried.

KenRad, tall, black glass: THESE KICK!! very lush, deep, BIG BIG sound; the absolute best midrange; detail was good, and surprisingly, this tube is NOT DARK. very smooth, and less reserved sounding than the other tubes. Let's it loose... and that's the one drawback; the bass isn't as tight the TungSol or the Sylvania, but it didn't annoy me. What I gained from this tube far outweighed this drawback.

...that's just what I thought of these tubes in MY system. Who knows if these qualities translate to other pieces.
128x128dennis_the_menace
asa
662 posts
 
KenRad black glass are extremely fine. I have four NOS 1944 matched pairs, army boxes, that I am still glad I accumulated at the time. I use the Tungsol round getter black glass, but only because speakers in that particular system are not full range (Tungs sound sweeter there, although not as expansive as Kens).

You guys may want to take a look at the "Preamp of the Century" thread. The Supratek pre takes 6SN7's and we discussed them there about a month ago. My impressions and others are there FYI.

denis, what tube did you eventually end up with as outputs on the 70/70? Svets? Happy?
dennis_the_menace's avatar
dennis_the_menace OP
467 posts
 
For now, I'm running the VAC with 4 Western Electric and 4 Golden Dragons. I've got 8 JJs coming soon. The Golden Dragons are on their last leg. I love the sound so far... the KenRads took it up one more notch.

Next year, once the Supratek comes, will be another flurry of experimenting, I'm sure.
pgleekel
49 posts
 
Dennis- at least on the 30/30, the inputs are the two inner most 6sn7s and the outputs are the two outer most. I only assume the 70/70 is set up the same way.
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
Well, I've had some clear glass Ken-Rad VT-231s burning in my system since Wednesday, and had my first listen this Saturday morning.

In my system they do indeed sound big, lush and not dark at all. They don't have the top end detail of the Sylvania VT-231s, and that may be the reason I feel they aren't as holographic, but I like the Ken-Rads very much. Their midrange is very organic. Female voices sound more like the singer is in your room unmiked, whereas the extra detail of the Sylvanias make you feel the singer has her lips close to the microphone. Only you can decide which is better. These are real keepers!

I wonder what the difference is between these and the black glass Ken-Rads.
asa
662 posts
 
Ken Rad Black glass discernibly better...Huge depth, expansive, quieter, low level detail more natural, harmonic decay improved, Homeric bass, even more organic while still clearer into depthfield without any increase in sterilty. Sounds very similar in all parameters - as you would expect - but involve-ability is heightened, making any deficiciencies at the frequency extremes (full toward plummy bass in some systems; slight rolling at very top but not thin, just reduced projection) a non-issue IMHO.
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