KT77 for Tubelab SSE

[zman01]

Serach did not bring up much info, so creating a new thread.

Has anyone tried KT77 tubes in their Tubelab SSE?

[rknize]

I think I had my JJs in there at one point. They seemed to work fine, but I don't remember much more than that. I'd imagine they'd be in 6L6 territory.

[zman01]

Thank you Russ.

In the meantime, a search for alternatives revealed another choice - read that the 6V6 tube sounds very nice in the SSE (nearly DHT like sound according to the Tubelab website?), but will need a lower B+ voltage vs the JJ EL34s I have in the amp now. Also understand that they will produce around 1.5 watts per channel, but I have 92dB efficient speakers and listen at moderate volumes, so maybe worth a try?

Looking up some older posts reveal that the new 6V6 tubes can be run at much higher B+ (~450v) that older makes which would be around 320v?

My amp has:

Power: Hammond 373BX - 350-0-350
OPTs: One Electron UBT-2, 4.8k primaries
Choke: Transcendar 10H, 200 mA, DC Resistance: 100 ohms

Btw, I did not measure the B+ of my SSE yet - after putting it together, it just worked. - now need to measure that if I fancy rolling with different tubes.

[rknize]

Vintage 6V6GT tubes could take quite a bit of spec bending on the plate voltage. Many guitar amps took advantage of this and designed circuits that ran then well out of spec to get more power. When new production 6V6 tubes started coming out, they tended to fail when used in these circuits. Since then, New Sensor has come out with a few versions that can handle the extra B+. The Electroharmonix 6V6GT was one of the first to claim this. I think that TubeDepot calls these out on their site.

If you are running with a choke, you can drop the value of or eliminate C1 to reduce your final B+.

[zman01]

I've looked up EH and Gold Lion tubes. The Gold Lion is supposed to sound better but costs quite a bit more too. No pain, no gain Recall reading that the Tung Sol 6V6 is robust at higher voltages and also sounds good, but the gain is less vs other tubes like JJs.

[rknize]

The EH and Tung-Sol are roughly the same tube from New Sensor. I have the latter in my amp, but it doesn't push the specs very hard. I didn't know that New Sensor had a "Gold Lion" 6V6 as well. They appear to have the same innards as the other two.

I don't know what is really different between all of their different re-issues. Some seem to think they have slightly different internal alignments, even though the plate structures are often exactly the same. Others think they use simple binning and stamp the best samples with Gold Lion. It's really hard to say.