Questions on KT150 tubes

Wolf,

I absolutely love your posts, way too funny.

I have a Jolida Fusion 3502 with KT-150's. I think the same model that Wolf and a few others here have. I have to say for under $2K retail this integrated amp sound amazing. I am using a preamp with it and using just the amp part but holy cow! Superb late night listening, big, wide and 3D sound stage. It has clarity, a touch of sweetness and detail. I smile every time I listen. I started with the EL-34 in it and still love them, but the KT-150 are stunning.

$95-105 each depending on matching and quantity.

If you are not crazy about what you are hearing after 100 hours, maybe they are not for you.

Is the bias adjustable? Can you lower it or raise it a little to change what you hear? Lower bias will warm up or sweeten the sound, to a certain point.

From what I understand, ARC and Conrad Johnson charge more for their tubes because they test them more thoroughly. I also heard that they, especially for CJ, test in the actual amps that these tubes will be installed.

I believe they go through more trouble to weed out tubes that would normally die an early death.

Also, I believe ARC in particular, tests for parameters that keeps the tolerance tighter for their circuits because of the Primary and slave bias aspects of their circuits which require matched pairs.

In my CJ gear, tubes are individually biased, which can help alleviate some of the stricter matching required by ARC.