Tube Comparison

[Mike]

I found this interesting Tube Comparison.....GENERALLY SPEAKING, do you agree?

EL34
SET - Sweet midrange, airy highs, a little rolled off bass, slow dynamics, fair imaging but high voices blurred in soundstage
PP - Has bass punch lacking in SET but grainy midrange and dull highs, tight soundstage and good PRAT

KT88
SET - Plenty of bass punch, sweet midrange, clinical and cold highs, tight imaging, good dynamics, jumpy
PP - Loads of bass, somewhat scooped out midrange, outstanding dynamics, slightly blurry imaging, tizzy highs

300B
SET - clean and clear, outstanding resolution and imaging, excellent frequency balance, tight but unassuming bass, wide variation depending on manufacture. WE tend to be the best, new JJ are pretty good, the oversize "320XL" etc are very good also.
PP - good dynamics, powerful sounding, a little more veiled than SET 300B, produces a somewhat collapsed soundstage. clear neutral highs, unremarkable midrange

2A3
SET - clear and sweet at the same time, excellent soundstage, a little light on bass but honest at reasonable volumes, good frequency balance in mids and above, airy highs and clear mids. A little flowery in overall presentation.
PP - a lot like SE 2A3 but makes up for the lacking bass power of 2A3 SE. Soundstage a little collapsed as in 300B PP

805
SET - Painterly rendition of sound, like a Seurat or Van Gogh, very beautiful but certainly not neutral, yet authoritative at the same time, good bass punch and good balance of frequencies overall.
PP - very powerful and neutral sounding and somewhat etched, as is viewing a bas-relief. Highs are in your face but may be just the thing for vintage AR speakers

845
SET - Everest-like headroom in presentation, precise soundstage, and well-balanced frequencies. Harmonic structure similar to 300B and 2A3, but even more neutral.
PP - Effortless sounding, highly liquid and yet commanding in tone. lack of even harmonics to the point of being transistor-ey. a little over-emphasis on the mid-bass but could be great for woofer or a sub.


Source: Sonic signatures of KT88, 300B, 805, 845 in SET & PP Configurations - Page 2 - diyAudio

 

[dlb2]

Generally speaking, yes. I don't agree with the the EL34, "PP - Has bass punch lacking in SET but grainy midrange and dull highs, tight soundstage and good PRAT." I don't find the midrange to be grainy at all and does the "dull highs" comment mean that it's maybe a little rolled off? All the EL34 based amps I have listened to have had so-so bass, a fantastic midrange and nice airy highs.

Seeing as how I run an 845 SET I rather liked this, "845 SET - Everest-like headroom in presentation, precise soundstage, and well-balanced frequencies. Harmonic structure similar to 300B and 2A3, but even more neutral."

"Everest-like headroom", that's a classic!

 

[Petro85]

i agree with his PP kt88's .
his 300b was pretty on, except there are so many different things with different tubes that change its hard to put a sound on the overall amp. different tubes sound like a different amp more so with the 300b than any other amp ive heard. although i never had 845's/805's in my house to test them.
his el34 was a little off, to me was sweet sounding but flat and boring in the mids for the most part. not much bass and great highs. with my hovland pre which was also known for soaring endless highs that was sure the hightlight of my system when i had the el34 amps here.

my favorites are 845 and 300b. where the 300b is #1 to me. the 845's do have that big air type of sound and are warm and inviting . the 300b gorgeous mids and tight accurate bass and awesome vocals is what i like the best . just my opinion though

 

[mep]

I can only speak to the PP KT-88s and the PP EL-34s. I have never owned a SET amp and have no plans to do so. The comments that were made regarding both KT-88s and EL-34s used in PP I take with a grain of salt (just like you can take my comments with a grain of salt). Which brand of EL-34s and KT-88s are we talking about? What amps are they plugged into because the amplifier circuit and output transformer will affect the sound of the output tubes? I hope you see what I'm getting at.

With regards to general comments about the EL-34 and KT-88 tubes used in PP amps, I will say the following:

EL-34 tubes are known and loved for their midrange which is where the music lives. They don't have a grainy midrange and dull highs unless you have a grainy amp with dull highs. In the 'right' circuit with some really outstanding output transformers and if you have some real NOS Mullard EL-34s, they can have damn good bass. The best bass and best overall sound I have ever heard out of EL-34s was with my Quicksilver MS-190 amps with triode input boards. This was a killer amp and they only made 75 of them and not all 75 came with the triode input boards. The output transformers are huge and very high quality. The best sounding current version of the EL-34 that I have heard is the SED version.

KT-88 - The sound of these from new production tubes is all over the place. I don't agree with the comments that were contained in the OP because again, there is no context for the comments in order for them to make any sense. KT-88 tubes don't have a scooped out midrange, tizzy highs, or blurry imaging. The best KT-88 tubes are the NOS Genelex family (Gold Lion, Monarch, GEC, etc.). They have the absolute best bass I have ever heard out of any KT-88 and the fun doesn't stop there. They are just a great all around tube from top to bottom. Unfortunately, other current production KT-88 tubes I have heard don't do that much for me. The best current production KT-88 that I have heard and lived with is the New Sensor Gold Lion reissue. However, if you own an amp that uses KT-88s and can use KT-120 tubes or KT-150 tubes, I highly recommend you forget all about using KT-88 tubes unless you are sitting on a pile of real NOS Genelex KT-88 tubes. I personally think the KT-120 and KT-150 tubes are in another league sonically compared to current production KT-88 tubes.

 

[joeinid]

Thanks Mark. Great info.