Another viable KT66 option

[surfnorthwest]

Just bought these Valve Art KT-66 tubes to try and also to have as spares. Just want to let everyone know that they sound fantastic and just as good as the Tung Sol tubes that I currently have in my 2466. There is however one difference with these I did not expect. These Valve Art KT66 tubes make my 2466 noticably louder, (this is a good thing) Plugged these in and right away I could tell I had more power. Don't know if that is normal or not because I have changed many power valves before in amps and never really noticed the change in volume with the amp.

Anyways if you are looking for a replacment KT66 I can vouch for the quality of these.

[slowpokerhino]

I'll have to check those out Surf, thanks.

[SteveD]

They are Shuagangs, the same as the stock valves, just branded with the Valve Art name.

I didn't think you had 'Tung Sols' in your 2466 surf, I thought you had stuck with Shuagangs. :o

[surfnorthwest]

I didn't think you had 'Tung Sols' in your 2466 surf, I thought you had stuck with Shuagangs

The Tung Sols have been in there for almost a year now and I am very happy with them. I sold my stock tubes to another member to the guy who was having trouble getting tubes ordered from Korg. From what I have been told about the tube factory in China is the Valve Arts are the best tubes to come off the production line, I don't know if that is true.

But Steve being that I do not have a bad or weak tube why did I gain more amp volume when I put those Valve Art tubes in? It was not a whole lot but it was noticable to me in low range.

[lowenzz]

I've been running the Penta (shuagangs) also, how I understand it that these companys by batch from a factory and just subject them to a quality control process, Penta, Valve arts, GT and others all do this in similar fashion.

As far as I know, there are only 3 tube factories, china (shuagangs), russia (sovtech), and the one where the JJ's/Tesla tubes are coming from, slovakia ???

and the new Mullard factory hopefully.

FWIW the Penta KT66's have been treating me well and I like their preamp tubes too.

[SteveD]

But Steve being that I do not have a bad or weak tube why did I gain more amp volume when I put those Valve Art tubes in? It was not a whole lot but it was noticable to me in low range.

It would seem that the Tung Sols were not performing to standard KT66 spec. Maybe some of their parameters went gradually out of wack over time and you didn't notice until you replaced them.

[Julesman64]

Didn't we already have a discussion about Tung Sol KT66's being bad reissues with potential to cause damage?? Here's the link from Dr. Z's forum that was posted in a previous thread:

http://drzamplifiers.proboards41.com/in ... 1168337699