ldm":2530kj6s said:
mhenson42":2530kj6s said:
DEWD":2530kj6s said:
I'm wondering if the new loop and KT88's would make it a keeper.
I guess not.
ldm":2530kj6s said:
I have an early Nitro and a newer QR. I fought with the Nitro until I put KT88's in it. I put many different brands of EL34's in my Nitro before trying KT88's. Ruby EL34bstr's were pretty nice in the amp FWIW. However, KT88's made the the lows bigger and tighter. It opened up the amp and gave it more saturation. KT88's honestly made the Nitro go from good to great for me.
I see you are dealing Gold Lion KT88s now. In the Nitro...how do those compare to the SEDs, Sino, JJs?
I have not a/b'd them all yet. gsxrbusa bought a quad of them (and the GL KT77's recently) and he tried the Ruby's, SED's, Penta's, GL's...in his amps and said he liked the Gold Lion KT88's best. I will forward the thread to him for more insight...
Hello!
mhenson42":2530kj6s said:
Yeah. I have the Kt88 Nitro - I love it alot more than the el34s. Just thinking about retubing and was considering the Gold Lions.
Yeah, I think I have tried most of the KT88's. I really think it depends on the amp for me. In my Herbert the Gold Lion and the SED sound almost identical. Now that the GL is cheaper I would go that route. I did not care for the Ruby in the Herbert as much.... a little on the stale/dull side to me. Not a bad tube in the right amp, I owned a KT88 Nitro and the Ruby sounded pretty awesome in that one.
SED and Penta KT88SC sounded great my VHT Pitbull Ultra Lead, I never got the chance to try the GL in the UL but I am sure it would have been great.
The Gold Lion, SED and Penta all sound great in my Peters Hydra. It's a really close call but still prefer the Gold Lion.
I am not a fan of anything JJ that I have tried. The Gold Lion KT77's kill the JJKT77 IMO. The JJ always ends up being dark to me but if dark is your thing then cool. I know we are not talking about 77's but thought I would throw that in there.
My money right now is on the Gold Lion. Great bottom end hit, smooth highs and mids are a bit more musical (if that makes any sense) I don't think mids are the KT88's strong suit, they are there obiviously, but not as crunchy as an EL34 of course. I find that a KT88 in a high gain amp just tightens the tone up and gives a more focused feel. This is all subjective as anything else. YMMV.
Been very pleased with the Gold Lion tubes so far. No issues and sound great. If you are use to running SED it will be very close.
I also buy everything from Valve Queen because I never have any issues with any tube I get. They are all within 2ma on everything I have bought.