"@paulcreed Why did you end up preferring the 120’s, at this point I’m in the same camp."
I may have an unhelpful answer, in my case. First, has to do with my custom built speakers. Secondly, old habit, familiarity, maybe. I'm an old EL34 fan too. I like KT150 & KT120s for different reasons. I end up tuning the system to be a tad more rolled off on the top end, slightly, always focusing listening pleasure more on midrange frequencies. It's partly a preference kind of thing as I've aged. I cringe hearing uber-detailed systems. Piercing horn speakers hurt my ears, for example. I grew up listening, building, electrostatic AMT hybrid speakers.
My speakers generate a lot of sound output above 1200hz in my particualar listening room. Revealing. Some of my more neutral front-end and power tube combinations can be too much of a good thing to my ears. I might have some hearing sensitivity in upper midrange and high frequency ranges, so I tend to lean towards a smooth dac, smooth interconnects, tubes (input our output) that tend to recess high frequency, slightly. I have the same challenge and preference with my solid state amplifiers. Got that dialed now too, to my preference. If I decide I want a tad more detail and depth, I pop in the KT150s, but i've been stuck back on KT120s again past few years. Bought three quad pairs of them as spares. I may try the KT150s again over the holidays. When I replaced the main power capacitors and coupling capacitors with really nice upgraded units, even more detail came through - back to the balancing act. As my buddy says, "its all preference at the end of the day for each individual". I tend to agree. Its all good. :)
