Dennis Had Inspire Amps

[decooney]

Originally Posted by Comzee

Thanks for the tip!! I'm looking into it right now.
No price listed, let's hope it's not astronomical like most 845 amps...

Yea...a constraint with most 845s I’ve drooled over. And, it goes up even more if you don’t like the stock tubes. Kinda like an all wheel drive Porsche Turbo. Buy the car and prepare yourself for tire replacement costs for starters. Or forget the Porsche.

[zbyte]

Thanks @straitwire
Does anyone has any experience rolling in these tubes
6550, KT88, KT90, KT120, KT150
I can use the extra watts, which of these are good and tube manufacturer if possible
Thanks

[Bombadil]

Originally Posted by straitwire

Hey zbyte, A few of our customers have configured there stereo amps as monos like you said.
And the volume pot is a popular option...straitwire

Ever heard of anyone running the PSE KT88 amp in mono? What would that produce, something on the order of 45-50 wpc?

[oldominion]

Originally Posted by zbyte

Thanks @straitwire
Does anyone has any experience rolling in these tubes
6550, KT88, KT90, KT120, KT150
I can use the extra watts, which of these are good and tube manufacturer if possible
Thanks

I've rolled all of them in my Inspire, and to keep this short and simple, the KT150's by Tung Sol are going to be very hard to beat. I've written on this forum before about my issues with my Altec 604's and bass response. Well, the 150's solved that problem nicely.

Personally, for my system (LP 3.1a and Inspire, Altec 604 8G), they are the best I've heard.

[oldominion]

I've been having some pretty severe microphony issues with my 3.1a preamp of late. My assumption was, of course, the tubes. At Dennis's suggestion, I tried some 6dn7 instead of 6sn7; they sounded great in fact, and were cheap. So when I started to get the very fine, pinging and ringing sounds I assumed the cheap 6d's were at fault, so plugged in my trusty old Sylvania 6sn7...only to find that, after a period of warm up, the high pitched pinging and ringing returned.

I also have 6922/6dj8 in my phono stage, another tube that is prone to microphony, but I'm pretty sure I can trace it to the 3.1a preamp.

Has anyone ever experimented with rolling the 6bx7?

[zbyte]

Originally Posted by oldominion

I've rolled all of them in my Inspire, and to keep this short and simple, the KT150's by Tung Sol are going to be very hard to beat.

Thank you

[Cdrdel]

zByte,

I have had great results with Gold Lion branded KT-88 and KT-120 in my Universal SET amp. Strong bass with my GR NX Studio Monitor (love this speaker) and Fusion 8 horn speaker. I am driving the amp with the LP-3.1a.

I also have the Triode SET, not sure how this differs from the Universal amp. It came with JJ 6550's, they were OK. I preferred the KT-88 and 120's in this amp as well.

I have not tried the KT-150. It's a sweet looking tube!

[Miami Ed]

I strongly agree with the positive comments about the KT-150. I use mine in an Inspire Firebottle with an LP3.1 Ultra preamp into a pair of classic BBC monitors in a small room. I tried many tubes before I settled on the KT-150's. None of the other tubes rendered enough bass for me. With these Russian Tung-Sol tubes, I get excellent mid range and smooth highs.

My speakers are by design bass light but with these tubes there is enough low end to satisfy me. They are not sensitive but the impedance curve is very tube amp friendly. I mostly listen to Jazz with some folk and acoustic blues, so this is an excellent combination for my listening space.

I also agree that they are really impressive looking tubes.


Ed

[decooney]

At first, I was not so sure about KT150s in my Inspire or my current <other brand> mono amps. Got Top to bottom range, yes - for sure! Texture and smooth tone came later, patience paid off but almost gave up with some input tube changes in between. Much smoother now after some burn time in my current mono amps.

At 100hrs on KT150s I went back to a local dealer to compare where he had quite a bit more burn-in time on my same amps with KT150s. The difference at 20-40 hours vs 200-300hrs was unexpected. A nice surprise. Better than my former GLKT88s that I liked quite a bit with a bit more dynamics the former EL34 sound on my other amps. Sold the KT120s with no desire to go back to KT88s or EL34s. Really liking the KT150s now. I can bias my amps down to 40ma per tube vs. 50-60ma They take on a different presentation and deeper sound stage backing them down a tad. Turn them up to 50-55ma and presence comes more forward and expansive which is fun too when you are in the mood for that. Hard to describe, at 40ma bias in my amps its sort of like a smoother EL34 sound with fuller body and more dynamics I did not get with EL34s or KT88s in prior amps nor dryer sounding KT120s in my current mono amps. >>I've since learned throwing KT150s in an amp that's not designed to run them accordingly with higher plate voltage could be a waste of money too.<<. Talk with the amp designer before you spend up on KT150s fwiw.

...

[bearcity]

Originally Posted by oldominion

I've been having some pretty severe microphony issues with my 3.1a preamp of late. My assumption was, of course, the tubes. At Dennis's suggestion, I tried some 6dn7 instead of 6sn7; they sounded great in fact, and were cheap. So when I started to get the very fine, pinging and ringing sounds I assumed the cheap 6d's were at fault, so plugged in my trusty old Sylvania 6sn7...only to find that, after a period of warm up, the high pitched pinging and ringing returned.



I also have 6922/6dj8 in my phono stage, another tube that is prone to microphony, but I'm pretty sure I can trace it to the 3.1a preamp.



Has anyone ever experimented with rolling the 6bx7?

Don’t have an 8 pin Inspire LP so cannot reply about tube recs but you may try cleaning the tube sockets and pins. I was once having microphonic issues with multiple sets of tubes and this solved it. Some deoxit, and Qtips on the sockets and an abrasive pad on the pins. Vintage tubes can have a fair amount of oxidation on the pins which can gom (Madison County, NC term)up the connections.

Good luck.