Tube sound: Tung Sol KT 120 vs KT 88



hi. I have a CARY SLI-80 signature series amp… and I’m wondering what the difference in sound… equally eligible tubes for this amp… please comment on knowledge of differences… power? bass? Midrange?

thank you

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Showing 2 responses by moose89

Thank you a lot for your response SL I 80 integrated amp with headphone jack. My output tubes are Svelvania 6550 quad. And I am running Cornwall fours.

the other tubes are Genelex Gold Lion 6922’s, EH 6SN7’s, with some Tung Sol USA rectifiers ordered on EBay. Crazy but I bought it on eBay as it looked new, and when I received it all the wrong fuses were installed and the AC fuse was blown. There were slow blows where there needed to be quick blows, and I don’t even know if it works yet because I bought it when it was obtained through consignment. I thought to myself wow, if it just doesn’t power up, it must be bad fuses, which has proven true. But I need the rectifier tubes to test what I have installed and replaced which was an assortment of KT 80/8  of which two of them were gold lion, but they had black and circles on the sides of the tubes which I guess means they got burned somehow and the others were EH. Not a matching quad. It will be a fantastic deal if everything internal was protected by blown fuses, which I won’t find out until I get the rectifier tubes in the mail. I have replaced proper fuses to my knowledge, and I am no electronic genius. I have returned after purchase to SLI Dash 80s on eBay that I have been over $3000 worth on each to my door refunded now. This amp is only costing me $1000 so I have some money to play with. Thanks for your help. 

Thank you a lot for your response SL I 80 integrated amp with headphone jack. My output tubes are Svelvania 6550 quad. And I am running Cornwall fours.

the other tubes are Genelex Gold Lion 6922’s, EH 6SN7’s, with some Tung Sol USA rectifiers ordered on EBay. Crazy but I bought it on eBay as it looked new, and when I received it all the wrong fuses were installed and the AC fuse was blown. There were slow blows where there needed to be quick blows, and I don’t even know if it works yet because I bought it when it was obtained through consignment. I thought to myself wow, if it just doesn’t power up, it must be bad fuses, which has proven true. But I need the rectifier tubes to test what I have installed and replaced which was an assortment of KT 80/8  of which two of them were gold lion, but they had black and circles on the sides of the tubes which I guess means they got burned somehow and the others were EH. Not a matching quad. It will be a fantastic deal if everything internal was protected by blown fuses, which I won’t find out until I get the rectifier tubes in the mail. I have replaced proper fuses to my knowledge, and I am no electronic genius. I have returned after purchase to SLI Dash 80s on eBay that I have been over $3000 worth on each to my door refunded now. This amp is only costing me $1000 so I have some money to play with. Thanks for your help.