Tube amp question


I am a novice tube amp owner. I have had my Black Ice Audio Fusion F22 for not quite a year. I want to understand plate voltage and how it impacts tubes or vice versa. I want to roll the tubes to the KT150's which Black Ice has said can be used without issue. The plate voltage of the amp is 500v. In other posts, someone said that KT150's require a minimum of 600v at the plate. Since Black Ice says their amp can use them, does this rating depend on the circuit? I have some basic understanding of electronic circuits and I googled plate voltage but I'm still not clear on what it is exactly. Can someone knowledgeable with tube amps help me understand this? Thanks!

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Showing 1 response by alucard19

I have the Black Ice F35 and I tried running it with a matched quad of new KT120 tubes and at around 60-65 watts the amp shut off and went into protection mode.

I talked to a Mr. Michael Allen, who told me it was OK to run the KT120 tubes and to bias them the same as the 6550 tubes, but when I talked to him again to tell him about the amp shutting down with the KT120 tubes he informed me that though the amp will run with KT120 and even KT150 tubes that the best performance and sound quality will be had with the EL34 or 6550 tubes, that no extra wattage will be achieved since the transformers are the limiting factor.

He also stated that future Black Ice amps might possibly be designed from the get go to run the KT120 and KT150 tubes to achieve more power.

So I just removed the KT120 tubes and reinstalled the 6550 tubes and that is what I run currently, but I did buy another matched quad of KT120 tubes and run all 8 in my Primaluna Dialogue Premium HP integrated amp and they sound great and really add more detail to the top and bottom end.

Maybe your results will vary with the Black Ice F22, see for yourself and PM me with your results.