Genelex Gold Lion KT-88 reissued tubes

Frreol,

While I have had better luck than you with the Gold Lion KT88 re-issues I have also had excellent luck with The Tungsol 6550 re-issues. I am currently running them in 3 amps a CA50 ARC, Antique Sound Labs MG SI 15DT(single ended) and a McIntosh MA2275 all (so far) without problem. I too use the GE 6550's as my reference (I am down to my last well used quad) and the Tungsol's are the closest tubes I have heard to the GE6550 sound. I probably have 700>1000 hours on the pair in the ASL amp without problems. The CA50 will be the acid test however as it is brutal on it's tubes. Currently I probably have about 100 hours on that quad. Good luck.

Geesh, spoke to soon. 3 out of 4 Gold Lion reissue's failed within days of each other. Think I got about 7 months out of them. Liked the sound, not happy with reliability.

Fred, I was just curious: where did you buy those GL's?

As I said, I've not had a chance to compare the GL's w/ the Penta KT88SC's (it's about 50/50 which one people like better) but I've never heard of reliability problems with the Pentas. You might want to give them a try the next time. . . . . . . and they're a little less money too!

Hi Gerald,
I am also running tung-sol 6550 in a Cayin A-70T, and find the bass to be lush, mids and highs are sweet. I tried EH Kt88 in the cayin and found the bass to a bit thin and the highs a bit grainy.

Does the GLKt88 have better bass in the Cayin ?

I have the Genalex KT-88 reissues in my RM-200 and they work beautifully. A big improvement over the original tubes, as promised. Mine were factory matched, too.