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New KT150 tubes?

Has anyone any experience with these pretty new tubes. There are already one or 2 amps I know of, that use them. The review of one of these amps in a UK magazine suggested they were a little warmer and more natural sounding than the nearly new KT120's

The article also suggested they were a straight swap for KT120 based amps, with no adjustment necessary. They are more than twice the cost of KT120's, but still not too costly compared with NOS tubes. I know changing from KT88's or 90's to 120's. did require some amp modification. I have an ARC reference 75 and might want to try the new tubes at some point, ARC don't seem to have a customer E-mail service, to ask the question
david12
wolf_garcia
6,644 posts
 
It seems ridiculous that somebody would claim 1900 hours is "near the end of their useful life" for KT120s unless that person was trying to sell you something...that would make perfect sense. I'm shooting for 5000 hours or more for my 120s, which should bring me to the point where 150s are much less expensive than during the current feeding frenzy.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Wolf ... point taken. All I can say is that ARC and Gary (Hifegeek1) are touting the company line here. I contacted Kal at ARC by e-mail. He continues to hold that 2000 hours is when both the KT-120s and the 6550 WE regulator tubes should be replaced.
wolf_garcia
6,644 posts
 
If the 120s or any tube for that matter start to SOUND bad, become hard to keep biased, or explode and destroy your hamster sleeping in his ball next to the hifi (this is sad as you should never leave the hamster in the ball)...then certainly they should be replaced.
tomtab
97 posts
 
what gives you the idea the 150's will be cheaper in a few years?? the 120's haven't really gone down that much since they came out a few years ago. wolf, i have two 502's running in mono {yes, they have a lot more headroom now driving my 1b mid/tweet panels} that would be $750 to buy 150's ( 8 of them) instead of about $300 for 120's. big difference here. is the 150's adding another 10 watts to the amp going to really make a difference for the cost. at $60 a tube i would jump right on them,not at $90. mike at jolida (i spoke to him about this already--the 150's) says they will work with the 502 amp but would hold off getting them right now because they are testing them now to see what the best bias would be to run them at. my mono 502's now with the 120's in are pushing 140 watts at 550 v's. mike said the 120's could be run at 600 with no problem
tomtab
97 posts
 
what gives you the idea the 150's will be cheaper in a few years?? the 120's haven't really gone down that much since they came out a few years ago. wolf, i have two 502's running in mono {yes, they have a lot more headroom now driving my 1b mid/tweet panels} that would be $750 to buy 150's ( 8 of them) instead of about $300 for 120's. big difference here. is the 150's adding another 10 watts to the amp going to really make a difference for the cost. at $60 a tube i would jump right on them,not at $90. mike at jolida (i spoke to him about this already--the 150's) says they will work with the 502 amp but would hold off getting them right now because they are testing them now to see what the best bias would be to run them at. my mono 502's now with the 120's in are pushing 140 watts at 550 v's. mike said the 120's could be run at 600 with no problem
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