KT88 , Genalex or Chinese ? Help !!!

[aldovan]

Friends

This KT88 is a Genalex or a cheap chinese copy ?

Thanks,

Aldovan

[DaveMcLain]

I didn't think the Genelex had the metal around the base like a 6550 or am I thinking of the KT66?

[aldovan]

Thanks for the return.
This tubes is a KT88 and have solid plates.
The base have a brown plastic as GEC.

Aldovan

[aldovan]

Why the friends only read and not post ?
It is a begginer forum ?

[waltube]

It seems to be a GEC original, the aluminium ring base was used by this brand.
Also the mechanic is typical.

Bye

Walter

[kevinkr]

It looks a lot like some GEC KT88 I used to own. Well used I would say from the appearance or perhaps the lighting used to photograph it.

You need to be a little bit more patient, this thread was only hours old when you made your comment about people not responding. People need time to respond, and just because someone looks doesn't mean they know the answer.

These tubes have been out of production for a long, long time, and are very expensive if good. I owned more than a dozen of these at one time, I sold the last of mine over 8 yrs ago, but given the lousy picture I would not absolutely swear that is a Genelex but it sure looks like what I recollect..

[diamondsouled]

There are some great pics of the original GEC Genelex tubes here:

http://www.hifiaudio.cn/en/result.js...actory=Genalex

You should be able to see if your tube is an original from these pics.

Lar

[kstagger]

GEC mica is usually fairly clear compared to the white stuff that passes as Mica these days. But the Chinese KT88 (specifically the solid plate ones) were made to look as much like GEC as possible. I'm sure my 'tube guru' friend could tell in an instance.

To me - this looks like the real deal but I can't tell w/o a better pic.

[richwalters]

Aldovan
Photo shows difference between chinese 88 and and orig NOS GEC version. The Chino has a much more profiled round top and not so pretty looking as it's older brother.
Electrically, to my suprise, the chinese version survived my slaughter test. Otherwise the internals seem sim. So many clones have polished rings and multicoloured phenol bases which don't mean anything.

richj

[Ty_Bower]

The construction of the plate and the appearance of the plate material appear to be authentic.

Notice how in the photo that Rich provided the Chinese clone tube has plates made of a "flat" looking material. The genuine MO valve has some kind of a textured appearance, probably due to the carbonizing process they used.

Here's another photo of the real deal: