2. amps-preamps
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New KT150 tubes?

Has anyone any experience with these pretty new tubes. There are already one or 2 amps I know of, that use them. The review of one of these amps in a UK magazine suggested they were a little warmer and more natural sounding than the nearly new KT120's

The article also suggested they were a straight swap for KT120 based amps, with no adjustment necessary. They are more than twice the cost of KT120's, but still not too costly compared with NOS tubes. I know changing from KT88's or 90's to 120's. did require some amp modification. I have an ARC reference 75 and might want to try the new tubes at some point, ARC don't seem to have a customer E-mail service, to ask the question
david12

Showing 4 responses by tli

tli
52 posts
 
The new G series will use KT150 power tube. According to the usual ARC way of doing things, there sure be a way to upgrade existing amps to KT150. Fingers crossed.
tli
52 posts
 
Wow! What we need now is a volunator to try KT150 on his ARC amp. Is anyone willing to do that?
tli
52 posts
 
Thanks for the update. I think the evidence now is significant enough to call the verdict. I shall upgrade my Ref 250 to KT 150 when the current KT 120 is up for replacement. There should be good improvement in the performance.
tli
52 posts
 
Bifwynne, I was a big ARC fans too. My first hifi preamp was ARC LS-1 in the 80's. I had used the 40th Anniversary and recently upgraded to Ref 10.

I brought a pair of Reference 250 last year and in the first week, one of them failed to power on after shut down. They were finally replaced. My recent experience with ARC have been fairly bad. Reliability is a real issue.

ARC had lost my support on power amp. My amp had been changed to Pass Labs and to me Pass Labs sounds better. It is kind sad to see ARC losing its long time customers.
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