2. amps-preamps
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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
tsushima1
1,165 posts
 
Sounds promising Hfg1 , the last time I ran this past the main UK distributor being a number of weeks past the situation ,as far as was aware at that time , was that the Ref 75 would be Circuit/Traffo compatible , the Ref 150 he thought more doubtful !

The situation might have been misinterpreted however ,and the situation may well have developed since that time.

We wait upon the Judgment of Zeus !
wolf_garcia
6,644 posts
 
Cheapest 150s I've seen are $300 for a quad.
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
Wolf ... when speaking with Upscale Audio, one of the guys slipped that the KT-150s may rtail for about $100 per tube, or thereabouts. However, that price is not fixed yet as I mentioned above.

Even still ... if that is indeed the final price, it's almost twice that of the KT-120s. And ... unless the KT-150s have longer life, I'll probably take a pass, unless I inherit some money and get an itch to road test um' on a whim. I use my rig pretty much every day. The cost of tubes will get prohobitively expensive.

Let's see what somes back in user comments.

Happy Holidays,

Bruce
ariess
5 posts
 
Hifigeek1, any more info from ARC on the KT150's? For those of us running 4 KT120's in a REF75 or VSi75, what would the new power rating be? If there really is a sonic benefit, the cost of a quad, at $300-$400 would be cheap as an upgrade to an $8000 unit.
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
Still life testing and it is unclear if ARC will even sell these tubes due to the cost of each tube. I was told the tube exhibits a superb midrange. When I hear something after CES, I will post it to the thread.
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