Quote:
Originally Posted by Musica Amantem
Agreed (except for the TungSol 6AR6WA). Have you ever tried the 807 or KT-150? Is there a better 6550 out there (current production) than the Valve Art? These amps are so versatile and sound so good, there seems to be no limits to the range of sound tweaks at our disposal (except for the $$$  ). Curiously, my empirical assumption of a correllation with Triode plate current specs in the (top 50's to 80+) mA range has met a contradiction in the 350B (56 mA) and the 6550 (150 mA). The former should have worked and the latter not, but it turned out quite the opposite. Evidently there's more to the plate current to make the amp sing, maybe the tube design/construction as it relates to the rest of the system ... Hard to predict! If I were a reasonable dude, I would stick to the KT-66z and KT-77 coupled with the 274B and 5AR4, and CV-181 TII and CV-181 black glass, respectively, as these seem to be the best of them all (in my system, that is). But ... I wouldn't have gotten to this SQ level without trying. |
If we were 'reasonable dudes' we would have i-Pods with ear buds.
But we are not so we are here. I have more tubes than I need but I still bought the Mesa tubes.
However, I refuse to pay the present prices for the alleged holy grail tubes. I simply don't see the value.
Did the 350B not work for you? They need some hours to open up.
Better 6550? I don't know. I have a pair of the new Tungsol 6550's and will compare them to the Mesa's.
On to 6SN7's. I still prefer the CV-181's in my rig over the old stock that I have. What about you?
I got a pair of the KT150's but one died. I'm not sure that they were meant for SE triode wired amps. I have some 807's but no adapters. I almost bought some today but decided not to.