KT150 amps

Mike, Ayon Epsilon, have had these for nearly a year now & tried them in triode mode last night.
 
Were the Epsilon's designed with the KT150 specs or were they Kt88/120 amps that are ok to use KT150's?

Lastly, how do you find their sound? How is the noise level?


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Dizzie said:
What is the maximum power that a pair/channel could output? Obviously it would not be good to run them full out. What is a good design max?
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You should safely be able to get around 125 watts per pair in push-pull.
 
Dizzie said:
Dear Dizzie, Here is the answer to the question you asked. :heart::heart: Dizzie

From the Tungsol website:

With a massive plate dissipation of 70 watts, the Tung-Sol KT150 is the most powerful octal beam tetrode ever produced. A pair of KT150s can allow an amplifier with a power output approaching 300 watts to be built.

The Tung-Sol KT150 glass envelope is a special egg shaped balloon that was developed to improve thermal dissipation and maintain a superior vacuum for the best sound. The fact that the glass envelope has no flat sides means the Tung-Sol KT150 has no problems with microphonics.
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I think this is somewhat misleading in that the "approaching" 300 watts is the combined power of the two channels and that would be at the maximum plate dissipation rating which is not how you want to run tubes. The Quicksilver MS-190 ran the EL-34 tubes at the maximum plate dissipation rating of 25 watts. The real, no BS Mullard EL-34 tubes that Mike designed the MS-190 for could take that all day long. Once the real Mullard EL-34s were gone, I couldn't keep my MS-190 running with Russian EL-34s. It just ate them.
 
Mike said:
Were the Epsilon's designed with the KT150 specs or were they Kt88/120 amps that are ok to use KT150's?

Lastly, how do you find their sound? How is the noise level?


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These have been redesigned with the 150's. The noise you are talking about is they are dead silent & thats with my ear 2 cm from the speaker through my phono stage. The tone or signature if you will is just slightly north of neutral & in triode mode, just a smidgeon more northerner again. Ayon did go through some quality issues some time ago but have these well & truly ironed out. Now it's tweaking my cable collection, a new tt & speakers & I'm done. The amps will drive anything & always seem to just idling along like life's a breeze.!
 
Thanks Kev, they sound like they must be absolutely wonderful amps.


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mep said:
I think this is somewhat misleading in that the "approaching" 300 watts is the combined power of the two channels and that would be at the maximum plate dissipation rating which is not how you want to run tubes. The Quicksilver MS-190 ran the EL-34 tubes at the maximum plate dissipation rating of 25 watts. The real, no BS Mullard EL-34 tubes that Mike designed the MS-190 for could take that all day long. Once the real Mullard EL-34s were gone, I couldn't keep my MS-190 running with Russian EL-34s. It just ate them.
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You mentioned Quicksilver as I did in another post. Sure their not "pretty", Their not high tech looking but Mike's amps which I have owned many do what their supposed to do. The V4's 170 watts into 4 or 8 ohms using Tungsol KT150s.

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CPP said:
You mentioned Quicksilver as I did in another post. Sure their not "pretty", Their not high tech looking but Mike's amps which I have owned many do what their supposed to do. The V4's 170 watts into 4 or 8 ohms using Tungsol KT150s.

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Chris-I owned a pair of the V4 amps. I bought them brand new. I ended up selling them and going back to the MS-190 with the triode input boards. What I love about the V4 amps is that you can bias all 4 tubes in each amp in under 1 minute.
 
CPP said:
You mentioned Quicksilver as I did in another post. Sure their not "pretty", Their not high tech looking but Mike's amps which I have owned many do what their supposed to do. The V4's 170 watts into 4 or 8 ohms using Tungsol KT150s.

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Those tubes are not KT150s. :huh:
 
Has anyone directly compared KT120's to KT150's? I heard ARC 75 with KT120 and then KT150 and it was better. The CAT with KT120 to KT150 was another reportedly nice change. Anyone prefer the KT120?

And where does the KT88 fit into this mix?

And yes, we all know the tube isn't the ultimate deciding factor, but I'm wondering if we can derive any generalities from the various KT tubes.
 
Mike said:
Has anyone directly compared KT120's to KT150's? I heard ARC 75 with KT120 and then KT150 and it was better. The CAT with KT120 to KT150 was another reportedly nice change. Anyone prefer the KT120?

And where does the KT88 fit into this mix?


And yes, we all know the tube isn't the ultimate deciding factor, but I'm wondering if we can derive any generalities from the various KT tubes.
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Mike, I agree with your assessment regarding KT120s vs KT150s on the Ref 75. The KT150s are definitely better in all areas. Too bad they are hidden. I think they look the best of all the common power tubes.
 
I prefer the KT-120 over the current crop of KT-88 tubes being made today (and no, I don't claim that I have heard them all). I also prefer the KT-150 over the KT-120. The original KT-88 tubes built by Genelex and using several names with the most famous being the Gold Lion name are in a league of their own. These KT-88s are beautiful sounding from top to bottom. Speaking of bottom, they also have the best bass I have ever heard from a vacuum tube until the KT-150 came out. If you have a tube amp that was designed for KT-88s and you have the resources to chase down and procure some pristine Gold Lion KT-88 tubes, you owe it to yourself to have the experience.

As for generalities, the real (meaning original) KT-66 and KT-88 tubes were and are great sounding tubes and I think we need to separate those out from the pretenders being manufactured today. I have yet to hear a modern day KT-88 tube that sounds great. Not Sovtek, "Gold Lion," or SED. I never tried the Chinese fire cracker versions.

The KT-120s sound better to me than the KT-88 tubes being made now that I have tried. The KT-150 is in yet another league from the KT-120 in my opinion. Removing the KT-120 tubes from my Ref 75 and installing the KT-150s was like upgrading the amp.
 
Dizzie said:
Mike, I agree with your assessment regarding KT120s vs KT150s on the Ref 75. The KT150s are definitely better in all areas. Too bad they are hidden. I think they look the best of all the common power tubes.
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The look of the KT-150 has to grow on you I think. They look like miniature footballs.
 
To me the KT-88's are a swiss knife, they do everything but nothing stands out or leaps to the fore of a shining quality that they have. After a while I get bored & experience a mediocre feeling from the experience. For me there is just something about them that is too smooth/linear. The KT-120 tubes really impressed me & when I heard the KT 150's I just thought they did everything the 120's did but just a touch better & almost with an effortless style, speed, bass,delivery, love them.
 
bzr said:
To me the KT-88's are a swiss knife, they do everything but nothing stands out or leaps to the fore of a shining quality that they have. After a while I get bored & experience a mediocre feeling from the experience. For me there is just something about them that is too smooth/linear. The KT-120 tubes really impressed me & when I heard the KT 150's I just thought they did everything the 120's did but just a touch better & almost with an effortless style, speed, bass,delivery, love them.
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I pretty much agree with you point for point. The only exception I take with your KT-88 comments would be if you were including the real Gold Lion/GEC KT-88s in with the currently available Russian and Chinese KT-88s.
 
mep, only owned what came with the Mc2301's & rolled the genalex kt88's, in saying that, I'd still take the 150's over a genalex 88
 
Ayon Orthos XS with KT 150 is on my top valve amp list for running planars (which require power). It runs at 300w triode and 400w pentode. Unfortunately haven't heard it yet, but have been looking for a powerful valve amp, and I got this based on a guy's ears I trust, as well as another who preferred it to Berning Quadrature and Lamms
 
Bonzo - do you know if the Orthos XS has been designed for use with the KT150 or is it a KT120 amp where you can use KT150's?
 
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