KT88 s Sovtek vs Valve Art

Pardon me in advance for not answering your question directly, but I am concerned you may be wasting your money. I know you are looking for "the cheapest", but for me there are very significant differences between the KT88s around and you owe it to your Power 3s, let alone yourself, to tube them decently. The Svetlanas are way ahead of the Sovteks in a way that more than justifies the extra price. I have a set of the Sovteks that will probably never be used again. Ditto for the Golden Dragons. The minimum for acceptable KT88s in a good power amp in my pompous opinion is the JJ Tesla, a little more laid-back than the Svetlana, but I reckon the Svetlana will suit the character of the Power 3s better. I am sure others will have other favourites. I don't own any Valve Arts but something tells me they are Chinese valves (?). The only Chinese valves I have tried (from 3 different sources, or at least brands) each had a glassy upper mid that defeated the whole purpose of using valves rather than silly state. I hope this helps, I am concerned you do not waste your money learning this the hard way as I did.

Then the Sovteks would definitely be a let down. The Svetlana 6550 are nice tubes, and the one chance I had to compare them with the Svetlana KT88s showed the latter to be only marginally better.

I don't want to know about Genalex (etc) valves. Please don't tell me more. I still have to put two kids through University. No no no...

I might put my JJ's back in and see if I agree. Difficult when I am in the middle of running in some cables so it will have to wait a week or so. Last time I compared them I preferred the Svetlana KT88 over the JJ, with the JJ being a little too polite. But this was a character thing not a quality thing.