KT-77 vs. KT-66

So you need 8 power tubes...at today's prices that gets an "ouch." Yeah I love the XA-25's utter transparency, but my Had amp just looks sad sitting there and it's easy to swap the wires over to it so there's that, and I'm always amazed and entertained by the differences between these amps. Fun...it's just fun...

I think the Gold Lion 66s have a little more low end maybe. Although unless I listen to them and quickly take them out and put the 77s in its really hard to tell critical differences, and I generally don’t do that. Suffice to say, after break-in (a day or 2) the 66s really came into their stride and sound great. I can’t say much about the JJs except that a pair of JJ KT77s I bought were just not good at all compared to the Lions. I also have at least 4 or 5 (one died) GL 77s so I’m set with those for years, as well as Tung Sol 7581As, KT120s, etc. I was perusing Viva tubes recently and thought I had to try the GL 66s, and looked in my tube drawer and found a pair I must have bought just before I started using the tubeless Pass XA-25...nice surprise although even at today’s rough pricing for Gold Lions I would have bought ’em. Note my single ended Had amp uses only 2 power tubes (four tubes total including the input 6SN7GTB and a rectifier tube) so tube expense isn’t much of an issue.

I've been using my Dennis Had SEP tube amp again lately (I switch between it and a Pass XA-25) which can utilize a really wide variety of "KT" type tubes and I really like KT77s (Gold Lion) in the thing. A fave for sure. I discovered a  forgotten  pair of GL KT66s I bought just before the Russian tube world imploded and recently stuck 'em in the amp...it seems they need a little while to break-in...they're great sounding! Really hard to say if they're better than 77s or to describe the difference, but hey...try 'em! The Gold Lions are great looking tubes by the way.