Metropoulos Forum

Here's a quick video I made shooting out GEC and Valve Art KT66's. Should be pretty self explanatory. Enjoy.

george

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuEOts7PfYA[/youtube]

I have not run valvearts but have used Harmas from Watford Valves and Gold Lions of which the Gold Lions were the closest to my GECs.
Oddly slightly mismatched (7-8mA) GECs sound best to me

Good info, I should test Gold Lions also.

George

I like them both. VA a little smoother with more mids? GEC slightly clearer with more bass/treble? I am listing on terrible headset at work, but that is what I got from the samples. I have the VA in mine and like them a lot. Those GEC sounded great.

George, being in the room with the amp, did you have a clear preference?

Mike

I do prefer the GEC. The mid range is more vocal and the tone is more 3D by far. like you could reach right into the tone. Obvious extra low end on the GEC. And upper mid push in the VA.

There's an almost intangible affect too, the feel of the GECs is just so right. So much like you stepped into a time machine.

No modern tube is likely to ever reproduce those qualities. But I'll give the VA credit for sounding quite good and not too far off the mark.

george

I'm surprised the Valve Arts hung as well as they did! The GEC just have that extra openess and clarity to me.

Curious as to why each set seems to have one tall tube and one short tube. I'm I missing something?

NY Chief wrote:Curious as to why each set seems to have one tall tube and one short tube. I'm I missing something?

Bias Tool??

Mike

Great video, thanks George !

I'd love to hear the Gold Lions too.

Cool vid and enjoyed the playing The GEC were just higher cholesterol...... they had the flava ! The Valve Art sounded very, shall we say 'Vegan' in comparison

neikeel wrote:
I have not run valvearts but have used Harmas from Watford Valves and Gold Lions of which the Gold Lions were the closest to my GECs.
Oddly slightly mismatched (7-8mA) GECs sound best to me

moderate mismatch often sounds best, at least it gives more overtones

Totally agree. I have 2 pair of GEC's that I was holding on to and running Valve Arts when I decided to put in the NOS. I don't plan on using the VA or Gold Lions anytime soon. For whatever reason there is more of a pronounced difference with my kit, the GEC bottles have far more chime and bloom and a substantially tighter bottom end. No time like the present!

With all NOS in the front end of the amp I really couldn't be happier. I have about a 6ma mismatch which sounds fine. They are however becoming very hard to find.Good job George!!

neikeel wrote:
I have not run valvearts but have used Harmas from Watford Valves and Gold Lions of which the Gold Lions were the closest to my GECs.
Oddly slightly mismatched (7-8mA) GECs sound best to me

What factory were the Harma's, Neil? (Assuming they were recognisable...)

From my experiences with Watford and Harma (EL34's and ECC83's) I'm done with both of them, unless they have particularly good deals. (Unfortunately, Watford are doing very good deals on GT stuff at the mo, and as much as I think Aspen Pittman was a complete tool, the Mullard GT's are pretty good tubes as CP stuff goes)

Are you talking about the 12ax7 or EL34 ?

https://www.watfordvalves.com/product_d ... sp?id=3501
https://www.watfordvalves.com/product_d ... sp?id=1565

Both. And they were just JJ's and not particularly good ones either
Avoid.