• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Fedex delivered a matched quad of KT120's today

rjw1678

rjw1678

Active Member
Today my matched quad of Tung-Sol KT120's arrived. I pulled the Tung-Sol 6550's out of my Jolida JD502CRC and installed the KT120's - used the easy bias system to bias them to the same specs as the 6550's. Then I started playing my favorite CD's - the KT120's are more musical than the 6550's. The amp is running fine with the KT120's. I will post more on how the KT120's sound after I put about 50 hours on them.
 
Register to hide this ad
uh-oh, if these 120s out perform the 6550s, I will probably need to get a quad. I have the 6550s in the amp that won the recent shootout and it should have the oomph to run the 120s.
 
I have about 55 hours on the Tung-Sol KT120's - they sound really good. Compared to the Tung-Sol 6550's that the amp came with - the Tung-Sol KT120's have tight extended Bass, real nice mid-range, and clean extended high frequency, they are very open and not restricted, the KT120's are more musical than the Tung-Sol 6550's. They effortlessly push the amp more than the Tung-Sol 6550's. The amp now sounds exactly the way I have always wanted the amp to sound, it sounds great with 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's rock music. Now over the next 6 to 12 months I will see how the amp handles the KT120 tubes.
 
When I read the title to this thread, I opened it with some trepidation, fearing another "look at this picture of how they arrived, all smashed up" thread. Fortunately that was not the case!

Looking forward to further updates on how they sound.
 
No that's UPS! all smashed up.... Good thing Fedex delivered as UPS is wickedly bad on anything they touch... I hope price comes down on those tubes.
 
I"ve got a Bob Latino ST120 amp that is 3 years old and still running the Shuguang Treasure KT88 tubes... Lots of hours on em. Impressed they are still going.

I've been shopping tubes for a month or so.. KT120 or KT150. I'd like to run the KT150 tubes but that price tag is a hit...
 
Bob L hasn't come out with a recommendation for the KT150's yet ... maybe best to hold off on those. Last I heard, the transformer should be able to handle them, but you wouldn't see any additional power out of them compared to the KT120's. You should see about a 10% output gain using those. That leaves KT150's more of a sonic option, and I haven't really heard any real world results there.

That said, Bob did some extensive testing with KT120's in his own personal rig, running the bias up to 75mA ... and back down again to 55mA. No discernible difference at the higher settings, so no sense pushing them. A couple knowledgeable folk prefer around 60mA, with good results over several months of listening.

I've been running them in my ST120 for several months now and they really tighten up the bottom compared to the Psvane KT88's. Currently giving those a go again, with no change in the drivers, just for a change of pace. I can boost the bottom with my dbx BoomBox to compensate for the weaker bass, and I did notice immediately after the swap that the Psvayne's sounded sweeter in the midrange than the KT120's. The KT120's still have a tighter bottom and better definition for tom's and string bass.

So ... short version. My favorite? Both. <G>

Main thing to remember, the KT120's do put additional load on the power transformer, so make sure whatever amp you're using can handle them. Definitely not recommended for stock Dynaco iron.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom