Best kt88 for VAC Avatar Super

Maineiac,

Great timing. I just read your post while me and my wife are casually listening to some great LPs I picked today. One of them is my forth copy of Getz/Gilberto and it's an original pressing in great shape, and not more than 2 minutes before reading your post, I turned to my wife and said, "wow, the new tubes finally burned-in! I am so familiar with this album, and hearing its lushness without loss of detail is making me smile!

A few weeks ago, I rolled a quad of Tung-Sol 6sn7s and a quad of Genelex Gold Lion KT88s (all new issue) and suffered through weeks of crappy, almost unbearable sound from my Phi 200. I even called in for a return authorization for the tubes, I was so frustrated because the very nice people at Tube Depot said they should sound good right out of the box... uh, not so much. It took at least 60 hours for the Tung-sols and about 40 hours for the Genelex.

I just put on Waltz For Debbie... Oh does this LP sound gooood! And I suspect there's more burn-in to come, this is probably just the beginning.

Also, this week I'm getting a set of 6SN7s from Brent who is going to audition the ones he's testing and matching for me on an identical amp and marking the positions to install them in! (I always feel taken care of by VAC) Then, after these hand-tested and selected and auditioned tubes burn in, I'll be able to A/B the driver sets and report back. After that I'll do the same for the KT88s. This is so much fun. Bill Evans is sounding so good right now, maybe better than I've ever heard it... but I will do the A/B before committing to that.

Thanks for asking!
Alón

Great to know that you are having fun. I just rolled in new tubes too but my experience with break-in is not as dramatic. ENJOY!

If you enjoyed the original sound of your Avatar, stick with Kevin's suggestion.
I have an Avatar Super, just re-tubed (VAC KT-88s)by Kevin and it is stunning!

alonski---"Over 30 years an audiophile, first year in tubes... and lovin it, despite the learning curve."

same thoughts and sentiments here....nothing beats tubes... nothing,(well almost nothing:-))

Gentlemen,

Here are my observations from the front lines of the battle of the tubes... The four low level 6SN7s in my VAC Phi 200 needed replacement, so as an experiment, I rolled new issue Tung-Sols and burned them in for at least sixty hours. Then I received four 6SN7s (new Chinese) from Kevin which were picked and matched by Brent and then inserted into a Phi 200 at the vactory and only after they listened to them (in my exact amp) did they send them to me. Gotta love those guys!

There is no comparison, the fresh, unburned tubes from VAC completely outperformed the Russian made Tung-Sols. The difference is not subtle at all. The VAC sourced and tested 6SN7s simply shredded the russians.

And now, the KT-88s...
With the new driver tubes humming a happy tune in my amp, it was time for phase two:

I compared the chinese VAC KT-88s, (which came with the Phi 200, and sounded lush, detailed and gorgeous), with the Russian contenders , the Genelex Gold Lion reissue output tubes. I burned in the GGLs for sixty hours before critical listening (they sounded thin ROOTB) to make a valid comparison.

The GGLs sound light, open, untethered and musical, with a lot more inner detail and air. Compared to the lush, dark-leaning and romantic KT-88s from VAC, it's hard to say which is "better." The best way I can express it is that they are equally good, but different... it's more an issue of personal taste. Some reference tunes sounded better with one and vice versa. They are both very good tubes, and for now, the Lions are still in my amp and I'm enjoying my system immensely. If it wasn't such a PITA, I would swap them out as needed depending on what I'm spinning. That's not going to happen.

I hope this helps those of you considering rolling these readily available tubes in your amps. I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding my experiment.

Cheers!
Alón