2. amps-preamps
  3. 191147-148010

Crucial TUBE question

I  placed a KT 150 power tube into a Prima Luna Evo 300 preamp rectifier slot. I know. But what happened was surprising. The sound was, well, magnificent glorious. Nothing burned out. No smoke. No arc lights. I asked Upscale Audio to advise me as to what damage I may have done or could have done to the PL. They only said they would not advise placing anything but the original tubes in the slot. They would not commit to whether or not that power tube could be used in place of a rectifier to tube. So, is it an absolute or not? If so, why?  I’d appreciate feedback (please, no slams) from anyone having any experience with this. Thanks!

128x128audiodidact
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,851 posts
 

Wow. Props to Upscale for being so calm in their response here lol. Those tubes are not pin-compatible; they’re not even function compatible. The 5AR4 is a full-wave rectifier and you maybe sort of got this KT150 scheme working as a half-wave rectifier? - I don’t even know.

Anyways, what this tells you is that you like the sound of LOTS of distortion (the euphonic kind, not the harsh kind). I know how that feels - I once inadvertently subbed 5814 (12AU7) into the 12AX7 phase inverter slots of my Rogue Apollo amps, and thought it sounded awesome! Then discovered the mistake a couple days later, and felt silly.

But yeah, this is much worse than that 12AU7 / 12AX7 swap - please respect the gear and don’t keep doing it. At the least, it’s truly a testament to how resilient tube circuits are to most mistakes, versus Solid State.

czarivey
5,918 posts
 

Solid states have a lot more "room" for swapping. Any tube or transistor can work as rectifier

audiodidact's avatar
audiodidact OP
73 posts
 

@mulveling thanks for the kind kick in the pants. I should’ve known better. and @czarivey, thanks for that info too. I’ve since pulled the KT150s (cryo and matched for crying out loud!), and I will have to sell them or save up for a powerful enough intergraded tube amp I can use them with that will push 1.7i Maggie’s.

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