Home Tubes Asylum

Questions about tubes and gear that glows. FAQ

RE: No Sherlock, they don't have the magic. nt

Jim, I guess I wasn't exactly clear. I'm going to get a quad of reissue GL's (at a good price, I hope) to compare w/ the NOS GL's (and also with the SC's, like your customer.) But so far anyway, I've compared them with the OEM EH's in my MC275, and also my Penta SC's. Here's what I posted on Audiokarma:

I've been running a set of Penta KT88SC (solid plates -- a more faithful re-creation of the old Genalex than the new GL reissues as far as I can tell just by looking) and I found them much more open, dynamic, and more powerful than the mcIntosh OEM EH tubes. However, nowhere have I read a direct comparison of the Pentas or the new GL's with the original NOS Gold Lions. But get ready -- I'm going to do it next week!! I scored a mint set of very lightly used original 1960 matched Gold Lions, and I'll compare them with my Pentas. Anyone in Phoenix/Tucson that wants to bring over a set of GL re-issues is welcome to do so.

So the matched quad of 1960 Genalex Gold Lions arrived today. After 3 or 4 careful repeats, listening to the first 20 sec. or so using one of my reference vinyl tracks (in this case, Cat Stevens 'Peace Train') with the Penta KT88SC's warmed up, I shut the amp down, waited a couple of minutes and replaced them with the 'Old Gold's' as I now like to call them. I let the amp warm up again for about ten min. (enough for previously broken-in tubes) and listened to the same 20 sec. of music. OK, it was one of those differences that was obvious in three bars of music -- i.e. a big difference. Here are the primary points (and I make written notes.)

1. Something I never heard before: a kind of spartkle in the air, like you feel at a live venue when you hear that first pluck of a guitar being tuned on stage.

OK some specifics:

2. More powerful. Well of course. The (very) lightly used old Gold Lions read 9000 Gm vs. 8000 for new Pentas and 6500 I think I read for the 'New Gold's', and, if you're lucky, 5000 for the OEM EH's.

3. Tighter bass, probably due to better headroom (see 2.)

4. More low level detail, and squeaky clean transient response. I couldn't believe it! I thought I was "detailed out"! But electostats don't lie. There it was simply more sonic information.

Well, I wanted to know what the fuss was all about. So when a fair-but-not-outrageous deal presented itself, I was willing to spend the money to find out. Are they worth 4 - 5 times the GL Reissues, 8 - 10 times the Penta SC's? It's hard to compare them against other KT88's that way, because these old tubes have a distinct, identifiable presentation that completely sets them apart qualitatively from all the others (I've heard).

And to those who say the MC275's sound is pretty much unaffected by the kind of tubes you use in it, especially the power tubes, I say "gooood!", the better to keep the demand down!


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Michael Percy Audio  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.