My furious tube research has yielded more gifts courtesy of my favorite person, who is whomever delivers these things to me on that day
New to my eyes and ears are a 1963 pair of Tung Sol 6550 triple-getter smooth grey plates, 1973 Marconi A2900 solid-disc getter black plate, and based on curiosity and a lot of internet hype, a new reissue pair of Gold Lion KT88s. I've got some cool things to play with.
Super brief initial thoughts without any real break in time:
The A2900 is almost explosive in soundstage and sound. Already impressive, and this is compared with the G73-R it replaced. Admittedly, I'm still wrapping my head around the general sound of this amp and swapping in a bunch of tubes at once doesn't narrow things down in the slightest, but absolutely so far so good with the A2900. Soundstaging, extension, cleanliness and layering are all already impressive.
I popped in the Gold Lions for about 4 hours and my initial impressions are very positive. There was nothing objectionable to anything I heard during that time. They have nicely extended bass which I was hoping for, but mids and highs were also really good. Mids weren't clinical or thin, they were clean, even smooth, and highs were clean and extended as well. Nothing grainy or harsh. I'll look forward to playing around more with these but so far I'm in the fan camp.
The TS 6550s are what I've been playing since I took the Gold Lions out. These are great tubes as well. I feel like burn in will help as they're a bit compressed sounding at first. But with tubes I find if you can hear some potential, there usually is, and that's what I'm hearing with these. Mids are nice and full already so will look forward to more hours on these, especially as I burn them in along with the A2900 and GEC 5U4G that arrived a few days ago. A great combo to settle in with!
And a quick question -- anyone know if the Mogwai Rev 2 can run 6L6G or 6V6G tubes? I know 6L6GCs are good, but not sure about 6L6G
^ With the 6550s, A2900 and U52/5U4G