Any (new) Tube Testers that can be recommended?

Thank you so much for the help.

This may sound dumb but the tester lists KT100, but will it test KT-120 tubes?

ozzy

I own a Maxi Preamp 2 tester and find it easy to use and helpful in using tubes. It’s a big improvement over vintage Hickoks and others, unless you want a lab grade tester so that you can test tubes under the conditions they will meet in your equipment.

It tests Gain, transconductance, and noise. Unlike most vintage testers it has a chart that gives an average new number for gain not transconductance. That’s not a big problem as you can probably estimate what average new transconductance is by testing a few tubes that you know test around average new. I’ve decided that average new transconductance for 12AU7s is 1400.  Unlike vintage testers, the results it gives for a particular tube are repeatable.  Vintage testers can give a pretty wide range of results if a test is repeated. 

It’s a good tester unless you want to get really serious about tube testing. I’m keeping mine.

@ozzy - May be best to cocntact MaxiMatch directly regarding the KT120 since they don't list it in the details . Below is a link to their webpage that has contact information

https://maximatcher.com/contact-us/

Yes I have MaxiPreamp II, a MaxiMatcher II and a large collection of tubes. Note you’ll need an optional adapter for 6SN7 and another for 6DJ8 / 6922. It’s very effective for matching (its namesake) but also you’ll learn how to sort out weak versus strong tubes of each type. And of course, toss anything with badly mismatched triodes. I find that modern Russian small tubes (12AX7, 6SN7) when brand new tend to measure higher transconductance than the strongest vintage tubes (even "NOS") by 15 - 20% or so. But then most vintage tubes are pretty consistently good / strong enough (the duds will really stick out) which indicates to me they REALLY last. You’ll learn to grade each category on a curve. When you get a preamp tube that measures bad on this tester, you can HEAR this in your amp (it sounds bad too).

And the MaxiMatcher is absolutely fine with KT120. I had some used sets of KT120 which measured much stronger than I’d expected. I should have kept more of my used sets around before the shortage :(

Over the years I’ve bought many tubes from various private sellers online (here, AA, ebay), and sometimes would just put them away for a while (before I had this tester). Always bought tubes advertised as "tested, strong". Going through my stash, most of these tubes were indeed as advertised, but SOME are real pieces of crap that belong in the trash. Definitely some less scrupulous sellers out there.