About my KT88 Tubes


I am fairly new to analog,tube audio equipment so I thought I'd use this thread to gain some insight on a tube situation that I am experiencing.
My Cary 120S amp uses 8, KT88 power tubes and came with 8 matched Electro Harmonix tubes. Recently, I started loosing tubes from both sides. I would replace them and rebias everything and everything sounded good. I started thinking probably these tubes were getting near the end of there useful life so I chose to replace them all with 2 matched quads of "Gold Lions" which I have heard, were superior. Upon installing them, I am noticing that my top end is very shrill almost to a tinny sound. Do these tubes have a break in period? Does anyone else have experience with these tubes?
markus1299
I put these tubes in my Mc275 about 6 months ago and noticed that after about 30-40 hours they became sonically warmer, but not overly so, and with more dynamic impact while keeping their transparency and detail.
I am no expert either but I replaced my Winged "C" 6550 tubes with Gold Lion KT88's. At first I was not impressed. With my amps it took a week of heavy use for them to come around but when they did I was hooked. My feeling is yours will smooth out real nice so give it a little time.

good luck
I have a 120s and installed a new set of EH kt88's and keep them biased at 150 without any problems about 6mos now..
If you are going to get involved with a complete tube based system I would also suggest you invest in a good used tube tester to take alot of the guesswork out.There are plenty on ebay..I picked up a Eico 635 in great shape and it serves my purpose for basic testing.
I have been using JJ KT88's and they are very good, reliable, and sound great. Be sure your meter is accurate and bias accordingly. Jallen