time to discuss kt-88's

i own the harmonix in my aes dennis had signature amp and they are fast, and good on bottom end.....

I have used Svetlana and Sovtek KT88's but haven't tried the others yet. I found the Svetlana very clean and clear in the upper mids and highs (very impressively so) but a little thin in the bass and lower mid range. This was in a SF amp. I tried the Sovtek's in the same amp and was unimpressed until I changed the small tubes from Teslas to EI6dj8's - this brought the Sovteks to life and they have been in the amp in this combination for over a year now. I'm encouraged to try the EH's .......

I did not have such luck with the Svet KT88's regardless of the small tubes. I presently use Svet 6550s & JJ 6922's in my SF mono's which gives me a very balanced and detailed sound w/o excessive high end energy. Caveat - I focus on rugged tubes in my amps and have avoided some of the popular, but less reliable stuff. I hate lugging these beasts in for repairs because of a blown tube.

I recently traded my JJ KT 88s from my Audio Aero Capitole amp into my McIntosh 2102 amp just to see what would happen. the Svetlana Kt 88s made an amazing improvement to the Audio Aero. so much so that only now do I realize just how wonderful this amp sounds. I got on line and bought another set of Svetlana KT 88s to put back into my McIntosh. While I was at it I changed out most of the rest of the tubes in my system.

Anyway, you will find lots of support for the Svetlana KT 88 tube and perhaps even more support for electro harmonix which I have not yet tried.

I really like my Electro Harmonix KT-88EH in my ARC VT-50. The bloom I enjoy without the slight dryness of 6550. Just my 2 cents.