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Old 07-20-2016, 02:42 PM
querstrommotor querstrommotor is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Berlin - Germany
Posts: 38
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Dear Pojrzo,

sorry saw your question late.....
I tried a lot of different KT88, and I have to say that nothing matches the original GEC trile Getter black plates.
I is something completely different.
They are very, very open, but not harsh or with a treble lift.
The Gold Lion Reissues are grainy in comparison and closed in somewhat.
Than you have the midrange which sounds very silky, in comparison the Gold Lion is not very elegant in direct comparison.
The bass is fundamental with a lot of tone and agile.
The same goes also for using them in Mcintosh gear. But I feel the Air Tight reacts more sensitive to different output tubes - much more than a MC 275.

There are several different types og GEC / Gold Lion / Gold Monarch on the market.
Avoid the late Gold Lions with the small lion printed on the glas.
If you compare these tubes and their plates to the older GEC, it is another tube.
The original old one has a matte black plate coating, the one with the little Lion printed on the glas has shiny dark blue plates.
They are not anymore made in England - some say they were made in China - I do not know if that is true.
Even the little Lion types are better than a modern russian Gold Lion - but not in a dramatic way.
Than we have the Svetlana Winged C - and the original Svetlana.
The Winged C are the ones MAC is using with their own printing on the glass.
I had not such good experience with them - because the ATM2 drives the KT88 hard - and the Svetlana - both types were not very reliable on that specific amp.
Soundwise they are warme but clearly rolled off agains the Gold Lion Reissues.I know the original GEC are very rare and expensive.
A quad of real NOS costs around 1400,- (€) crazy I know.
But, the ATM2 costs you around 12000,-, and look at the fantastic Tamura output tranformers - I know of no other KT88 amp with sch fantastic transormers, and as we all know, it is the heart and soul of a tube amp.
Ad to that a fantastic layout, a stele chassis, pint to point construction an finest parts.
If you see it from that angle - it is a shame to put a good part of the possible performance in the bin, using not the best tubes.....
A very nice setting is:
4X GEC KT88 Black Plates Triple Getter
2X Telefunken ECC83 Smooth Plates
2X Mullard CV 491 Square Getter Long Plates
2X RCA 12BH7 Black Plates D Getter

hope that helps???

greetings from Berlin

Ekki
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