Reference 6 question.
 

For other owners of the Ref 6, how many hours did you have on it when you replaced the 6550?

I know ARC recommends a life of 2000 hours for the 6550. Right now I have 1805 hours on my Ref 6 and it still sounds great. I have a new 6550 ready to go when the time comes.

RLF
Buy an Orange VT1000 tube tester. Very inexpensive and a snap to use. It’ll tell you if the 6550 is good, worn and needs replacement or bad and needs replacement. Super easy to use even for a dimwit like me. Tests a lot of parameters at once. I use mine all the time.

Can the VT 1000 test the new KT150 and KT120 tubes ?

Thanks in advance ,

Tdh888

I've found the 6550C or 6550WE can last 1800 to 2400 hrs in ARC gear, although the early sounds of a tube degrading can be subtle. Of course there are exceptions. You can always swap in a good 6550 and compare.

No.

Derek at Orange in Atlanta tells me the VT1000 cannot test the Tung Sol KT120's nor 150's. The VT1000 is set up for the tube properties of the 6550 and KT88's and other tubes types listed for that tester (a KT120 for instance consumes filament current between 1.7 and 1.95 amps verses the 1.6A of a 6550/KT88 & the KT150 consumes 2.0A).

Best Sirs,

Bob

It’s super for the MC guys and the Tubes Bob notes. I use it as my main tester for the 6550’s in my Ref 40 and 12AX7’s in my tube amp. Does a super job of matching tubes based on multiple parameters not just one or two and assign s a numerical value to the tube for matching. The JAN GE 6550’s in my Ref 40 we’re matched to exact numerical value and sound superb.

Thanks for the replies guys regarding the Orange CT1000. I hope one day the manufacturer would be able to make software updates so this tube tester can measure the KT 120 & 150 . It seems it’s a practical buy for us non techie compared to the Amplitrex AT 1000 w/c cost a lot more .

Thanks oddeophile. I’ll definitely check out the Orange VT1000 tube tester.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have thought of doing that soon and it will be easy to swap out tubes since my Ref 6 sits on the top shelf of my audio rack.