[OctavianH]

Today was the day of experimentation. So I said, let's try to find some strange combos.

So I looked a little bit in my tube boxes and found there these Marconi EL32 VT52 which we bought very cheap when the EL32->39 mania started. There was a seller having a full box, so I had the chance to buy 4 pieses in excellent condition. Unfortunately I never found any good combo to enjoy these. Well, until today.

If these sounded weak to me using 6AS7 as powers and too melow when using other EL tubes, well with the KT77 and KT88 I quite liked them. These are 0.2A tubes, with KT66 I had the feeling something is missing. But with KT88 (in picture, some Ayon KT88sx), the KT77 Genalex reissues and even with GE 6550A these sounded good to my ears.
The quantity of bass and sweetness decreases in this order, and with 6550A I heard an immense sound stage. What to say, I never thought I'll ever use these again.

Then I said, if we search for strange combos the C3g have to be present. So I tried them with the Genalex KT77:

This one sounded to me close to the 6550A + EL32. A lot of air and a very good extension of high frequencies, which some might dislike, but some violins sounded good to me with these. For rock, well, these are decent but not as good as the KT66 but a plus is that I have the feeling of a very energetic combo, reminding me about KT150.

And, to close the evening of the strange combos I decided to give a try to something I am not sure someone tried before. Some of the rarest powers combined to some of the cheapest drivers I have. So here we have the Western Electric 421A combined with the Marconi EL32:

I always considered that these need moderately warm drivers, otherwise they will sound too clean for my taste. So the EL32 give them a very decent amount of sweetness. Bass reminds me of the 5998 when used with clean drivers like Psvane CV181T2, decently clean and punchy. Even if I hear some sibilance now and then, I would say it was an interesting try. And I just tested if these "old boys" are still working as expected, since I had some problems with them in the past. One of them was crackling and I had to apply the treatment learned from mordy to fix them. Well, here they are in full working condition.

I guess I exagerated with spam in the last days, but I had a lot of fun and I hope I tried some unknows recipes.

 

[LoryWiv]

Today was the day of experimentation. So I said, let's try to find some strange combos.

So I looked a little bit in my tube boxes and found there these Marconi EL32 VT52 which we bought very cheap when the EL32->39 mania started. There was a seller having a full box, so I had the chance to buy 4 pieses in excellent condition. Unfortunately I never found any good combo to enjoy these. Well, until today.

If these sounded weak to me using 6AS7 as powers and too melow when using other EL tubes, well with the KT77 and KT88 I quite liked them. These are 0.2A tubes, with KT66 I had the feeling something is missing. But with KT88 (in picture, some Ayon KT88sx), the KT77 Genalex reissues and even with GE 6550A these sounded good to my ears.
The quantity of bass and sweetness decreases in this order, and with 6550A I heard an immense sound stage. What to say, I never thought I'll ever use these again.

Then I said, if we search for strange combos the C3g have to be present. So I tried them with the Genalex KT77:

This one sounded to me close to the 6550A + EL32. A lot of air and a very good extension of high frequencies, which some might dislike, but some violins sounded good to me with these. For rock, well, these are decent but not as good as the KT66 but a plus is that I have the feeling of a very energetic combo, reminding me about KT150.

And, to close the evening of the strange combos I decided to give a try to something I am not sure someone tried before. Some of the rarest powers combined to some of the cheapest drivers I have. So here we have the Western Electric 421A combined with the Marconi EL32:

I always considered that these need moderately warm drivers, otherwise they will sound too clean for my taste. So the EL32 give them a very decent amount of sweetness. Bass reminds me of the 5998 when used with clean drivers like Psvane CV181T2, decently clean and punchy. Even if I hear some sibilance now and then, I would say it was an interesting try. And I just tested if these "old boys" are still working as expected, since I had some problems with them in the past. One of them was crackling and I had to apply the treatment learned from mordy to fix them. Well, here they are in full working condition.

I guess I exagerated with spam in the last days, but I had a lot of fun and I hope I tried some unknows recipes.

Great post, @OctavianH, fun to read about your adventures with Elise. 2 things stood out in addition to your assessment of the various combinations:

1. You were able to fix cracking tubes with a trick learned from Mordy. I have this issue occasionally with my Tung-Sol 7236's, what is the trick?

2. You had a lot of fun! After all, isn't that the point of this hobby? Some of the posts are so sober and serious (never in Elise thread, of course ) and I appreciate your reminding us of that.

I have some 6V6 en route (see my post in Euforia thread) and will report how they pair in various combinations when time permits. Take care and keep rolling!

 

[OctavianH]

Great post, @OctavianH, fun to read about your adventures with Elise. 2 things stood out in addition to your assessment of the various combinations:

1. You were able to fix cracking tubes with a trick learned from Mordy. I have this issue occasionally with my Tung-Sol 7236's, what is the trick?

2. You had a lot of fun! After all, isn't that the point of this hobby? Some of the posts are so sober and serious (never in Elise thread, of course ) and I appreciate your reminding us of that.

I have some 6V6 en route (see my post in Euforia thread) and will report how they pair in various combinations when time permits. Take care and keep rolling!

The trick is the following (all credits go to him, I just paste some advice he posted on these forums a while back):

I have had good luck restoring tubes that start to make loud popping noises by heating each pin with a 40W soldering iron for 30 seconds each. Just hold the tube vertically so that if something melts it will not flow into the tube (but really no such problems heating for 30 sec).
I would say that if the solder starts to seep out you should discontinue heating the pin - the 30 seconds of heat is just a general guide.
This method is only for crackling and popping noises. For hum and microphonics it may help to stretch tight a band of high temperature self fusing silicone tape (available for automotive and plumbing use) around the glass.

Well, I plan to stop the rolling, it was not very serious nor spent many hours on each one, I just wanted to see how some combos are presenting in 2020 after we found a lot of new tubes types and, I like to think, we raised our standards. I believe that the tube burn in will only improve some existing qualities you hear in the first hours and will not dramatically change how a tube sounds. This is why, even if my EL32 are not fully burned in (I think I have around 30 hours to them) they made an interesting pair to some tubes from the KT family. I strongly think we have a lot to discover about Elise, and we will continue to find very interesting combinations in the years to come.

PS. Keep us informed about the 6V6, I am also curious about some of them.

 

[OctavianH]

It is clear for me that we need to realign our preferences. The KT family of tubes was a game changer and all the other tubes are now sounding different than what we knew.
For example I enjoyed today the Genalex re-issue of KT77 with RSD EL12N as drivers. These were one of my favourite drivers in the old days, but now they sound different on the KT77. Interesting and fun times we are living.

 

[OctavianH]

Based on my researches and several very heavy listening tests I realised that KT66 tubes sound much better when Black Sabbath has Bill Ward on drums



So if you want to obtain maximum performance from your tube amp listen to Black Sabbath, and be sure that Bill Ward is on drums.

 

[LoryWiv]

Thomson 6080 powers, GEC 6V6G drivers (adapters by @Deyan) = a little slice of saturday heaven.

 

[Scutey]

Based on my researches and several very heavy listening tests I realised that KT66 tubes sound much better when Black Sabbath has Bill Ward on drums



So if you want to obtain maximum performance from your tube amp listen to Black Sabbath, and be sure that Bill Ward is on drums.

Won't argue about that Octavian!, Bill Ward is a brilliant drummer, right up there with John Bonham, this is a particular fave of mine

 

[OctavianH]

Thomson 6080 powers, GEC 6V6G drivers (adapters by @Deyan) = a little slice of saturday heaven.

I have 4 x Mullard 6080 and 2 x Philips 6080 SQ. I have a feeling all 6 are the same tube. Anyway I never understood these 6080s. Maybe I need to try them again.

 

[LoryWiv]

I have 4 x Mullard 6080 and 2 x Philips 6080 SQ. I have a feeling all 6 are the same tube. Anyway I never understood these 6080s. Maybe I need to try them again.

At first I thought the Thomson 6080's were a bit too polite, slightly rolled off treble, but with the right drivers they can shine. Stage is great, and tonality is a bit warm, really clean bass though with no bleed, mids are sweet, and highs are there, just not sharp / fatiguing. Probably not ideal for electric guitar or that last bit of cymbal shimmer, but I'm loving it for keyboards, vocals, acoustic jazz and some softer rock.

 

[OctavianH]

I promised that I will come back with some NOS KT77 impressions. Well, here they are near one of my russian reissues:

As expected these have the same warm and relaxed signature as the reissues, but the level of detail retrieval is higher, more than this the extension on high frequencies is better. With the russian reissues and the GE 7581A I had a small feeling of a "muffled" sound, and here it is not the case anymore. It is a very pleasant and creamy sound with a lot of detail. When mounted on the amp the lights are looking interesting on those rings:

 

[Scutey]

I promised that I will come back with some NOS KT77 impressions. Well, here they are near one of my russian reissues:

As expected these have the same warm and relaxed signature as the reissues, but the level of detail retrieval is higher, more than this the extension on high frequencies is better. With the russian reissues and the GE 7581A I had a small feeling of a "muffled" sound, and here it is not the case anymore. It is a very pleasant and creamy sound with a lot of detail. When mounted on the amp the lights are looking interesting on those rings:

Fab pic!, really shows off the internals of those old stock KT77's so well.

 

[OctavianH]

I have been lucky enough to find here in my country a seller with several pairs of GEC KT66 in original boxes, NOS, but untested. I bought a pair and tested today.

Even if these lovely logos are not printed as they should be, the sound as powers is sublime from the first minutes.

I do not think that, for me, and for rock music, I will ever find something better for guitar sound than these, and I guess these are and will remain my endgame.

The question which remains is : What lifetime we should expect from such a pair? I do not want to live anymore without a pair of these as powers, so I have to ensure that I will have one until I die.

 

[barontan2418]

I have been lucky enough to find here in my country a seller with several pairs of GEC KT66 in original boxes, NOS, but untested. I bought a pair and tested today.

Even if these lovely logos are not printed as they should be, the sound as powers is sublime from the first minutes.

I do not think that, for me, and for rock music, I will ever find something better for guitar sound than these, and I guess these are and will remain my endgame.

The question which remains is : What lifetime we should expect from such a pair? I do not want to live anymore without a pair of these as powers, so I have to ensure that I will have one until I die.

Really good find. I feel the same about GEC KT88'S and have collected eight in various forms regular 88, TT21 and TT22. I've read in various forums that 500000 hrs is not beyond possibilities for this tube so I expect KT66 especially using our amps could also come close.

 

[OctavianH]

Wow, this is quite a large amount. Let's hope we will be able to enjoy these incredible tubes a long time from now on.
However, my Colomor branded GEC KT66 pair, which sound exactly as the GEC branded one and look identical, started to have a small problem on one of the tubes.
The problem is that the tube is starting a little bit slower, sometimes I find that the corresponding channel is a little bit muffled and I do not have the same clarity on high frequencies as on the other. But of course, it is a slight amount of difference, not a huge problem and in some passages I cannot hear it. When looking at the tubes I see a small "ring" and marking. Maybe I am crazy. I made some pictures and the region I am talking about is is marked in red, can this be a sign of "something"?

I have to say that I used these tubes extensively in the last 6 months and I might have around 1000-1500 hours on them. I purely love them above everything.

 

[barontan2418]

Whiteness (cloudiness) is often an indication of a loss of vacuum so I guess it could be the beginning of that. I'm sure some of the old hands on here will either have experienced this or know more about it than I. On the other hand I could be completely wrong and the tube will last a good while. Hope so.