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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
 
Good morning Gary (Hifigeek).

Merely wondering whether there has been any further progress reports coming out of ARC Central ?

One would presume a bare minimum test time in line with ARC's retail tube guarantee regardless of any decision whether to retail directly or not.
gpgr4blu
1,088 posts
 
I am at the 1,990 mark on my Ref 150 KT120s and was curious about replacing with KT150s. I called Kal at ARC who has been an invaluable resource in the past. I asked when ARC would be done testing the KT 150s. He told me that ARCs position is that it views the life testing of Kt 150s as a "rumor". He could neither confirm nor deny whether that tube was being tested or if was even being considered for testing in the current line. Of course, he was very polite but very firm. I ordered 8 KT120s
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
Nothing yet from ARC.
hifigeek1
770 posts
 
People please do not ask ARC what the status of the KT-150 is. Thanks.
xti16
1,525 posts
 
Andreas Hoffman (owner and designer) from Octave has cleared the KT150 for use in the V110. He did also mention if you have a V110 you will only be able to hear the sonic differences but get no more power out of the KT150 without a circuit re-design. He said he likes the KT150 sound a lot (didn't mention why) and is considering re-designing the V80 to accommodate the KT150 for the higher power.
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