Funny…today I’ve been comparing the KT120 to KT150 tubes in Octave MRE220s. Overall I heard the exact same thing you described other than the bleached sound on the 150s. I’d call it more neutral sounding. Definitely not as warm as the 120s. In my system I have warmer cables so the KT150s appealed to me more and seem to have better synergy. Both are great but different. Go with the 120s if you like them. They have a fantastically sweet mid range.
Audio Research VSi75 - End of Tube Life? KT120 vs KT150?
I have recently bought a second hand ARC VSi75 amp. It came with both the original KT120s, which have about 250 hours of use, and some after-market KT150s, which have about 1800 hours of use.
With the KT150s, the sound is quite hard, cold sounding, tonally a little bleached, but with great dynamics, extended bass and treble, and much more three dimensional. KT150s are claimed to have a tube life of about 3000 hours, so these should be not much past half their life. There is no distortion or noise.
The KT120s sound warm, tonally rich, colorful and much more musical. But they also don't have the dynamics or frequency extension. Nevertheless I much prefer this sound.
Does it sound like my KT150s are at the end of their life after 1800 hours? This cold, steely, colourless sound does not match what I read about these tubes, but it also doesn't sound like the symptoms of normal tube aging.
A quad of KT150s is reasonably expensive. Is what I am hearing just the normal difference between KT120s and KT150s? If so, it is probably not worth the cost of buying another set of KT150s to find out.
With the KT150s, the sound is quite hard, cold sounding, tonally a little bleached, but with great dynamics, extended bass and treble, and much more three dimensional. KT150s are claimed to have a tube life of about 3000 hours, so these should be not much past half their life. There is no distortion or noise.
The KT120s sound warm, tonally rich, colorful and much more musical. But they also don't have the dynamics or frequency extension. Nevertheless I much prefer this sound.
Does it sound like my KT150s are at the end of their life after 1800 hours? This cold, steely, colourless sound does not match what I read about these tubes, but it also doesn't sound like the symptoms of normal tube aging.
A quad of KT150s is reasonably expensive. Is what I am hearing just the normal difference between KT120s and KT150s? If so, it is probably not worth the cost of buying another set of KT150s to find out.