Tungsol KT-120 vs Psvanne KT-120z

Albert

Albert

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I have been running Tungsol KT-120 tubes in my Ray Lumley M100 tube monoblocks and was wondering if there would be an improvement with the Psvanne KT-120z tubes? They are said to be warmer with better bass than with amps running the Tungsol KT-120's. My amps are already on the warmer side so this may be too much of a good thing.

Has anyone compared these two tubes?
 
The Treasure KT120-Z Select sound exactly like the tubes that I am want.

Hmmm, out of stock already. That was fast.


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Albert - I was eyeing the KT-120z's the other night and thinking of trying them in my VAC Signature 200iQ's.

Is there any chance your amps can be modified to allow for the KT150's?
 
My amps are kt-88 based and I think I am pushing their limit with kt-120. I don't think the original manufacturer is still in business so I don't think they are easily modified for kt-150 tubes. It's too bad sinc e I hear they are even better. I am tempted to place an order for the kt-120z's.
 
While I can't compare those tubes directly, I can contribute something. In a Bob Latino ST-120 I replaced the stock Sovtek KT-88s with KT-120s from Tung-Sol. They had a very nice sound but I was on a tube rolling roll. I replaced those with the Black Treasure KT88s. They sounded sweet for a few months then pops and sparks from one of them. I sent the 4 of them to Jim McShane and he reported back that they were junk. Not a good tube in the bunch. Since then the TS tubes have been doing just fine. No trouble and sound just as nice as can be. This is really just a N=1(or 4 if you like) so little data here.
 
I am running 16 Gold Lion KT-88 tubes in my pair of McIntosh MC2301 power amplifiers. I have had no hiccups with a tad of 1700 hours on them. They sound fabulous in the MC2301's with the Siemens ECC801S 12AT7 driver tubes. No reason to change a thing.

I have wondered if KT-120's would work in the MC2301 but I am not willing to experiment. I'll stay with the tubes the amplifier was designed to operate with.
 
Dan,

I love the fact that the 2301's are easy on the tubes, and those amps sound wonderful too.
 
I also had trouble with the Genelec KT-88 with reliability in my amp. I went through 3 tubes in 2 months, not reliable at all. I think my tube amps run the KT-88 tubes quite hard (high voltage, something like 700V) to get 100w out of a pair. The old tubes in the day could handle it but I don't think the new tubes are up to par. That is why I went with the Tungsol KT-120 as they can stand a higher plate voltage but at the same time draw a higher filament current from the transformer. I monitored the temp of the transformer for a while with a reptile infrared heat gun and only noticed a slight rise in temp (under 5 C) compared to the KT-88 so I kept them in. I ran one mono amp with KT-88 and the other with KT-120 at the same time to compare.

Since then I have run the tube amps for 16 hours a day, 7 days a week (last summer for music and tv/ht) with no problems at all so I think I can safely say that Ray Lumley M-100 tube monoblocks can handle KT-120 tubes. Compared to the KT-88 they are more dynamic and there is more powerfull bass but perhaps not quite as smooth as the KT-88. That is why I want to try the Psvane KT-120z as they are said to be warmer and perhaps smoother than the Tungsol KT-120.
 
Nice shot! And nice gear too. Here is a shot of my two clod hoppers. I am enjoying the PBS show on jazz.
 

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I too had issues with GL KT88 longevity. Went through two quads in my Cary SLI-80 in less than two years a couple of years ago. Love the sound but can't afford it.
I have been using TS KT120's for a couple of years now with only one failure.
They sound much more ballsy than TS 6550's that I have used.
I still might go back to the GL's though just to see if they have cured the reliability thing.
 
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