Gary (Hifigeek1) -- fyi. Some many months back, maybe a year ago, I made an online purchase of SED 6550 "Winged Cs" from Upscale Audio. To his credit and honesty, Kevin Deal cancelled the sale because he said there were some problem tubes in his then current inventory of Winged Cs.
I know the original factory that made the Winged Cs in St. Petersberg, Russia burned down a while back. Kevin explained that he had acquired a batch of original Winged Cs. Nevertheless, since then, I buy 6550WEs from ARC and the rest of my tubes from Upscale.
Just re-tubed my ARC Ref 5 SE and CD-8 with ARC sourced 6550 WEs and Upscale Audio matched 6H30s. The rig sounds heavenly. :)
However, my ARC Ref 150 has 1000 hours on its tube set. Sure hoping the KT-150 issue is sorted out by the time I'm ready to switch out the KT-120s.
I know the original factory that made the Winged Cs in St. Petersberg, Russia burned down a while back. Kevin explained that he had acquired a batch of original Winged Cs. Nevertheless, since then, I buy 6550WEs from ARC and the rest of my tubes from Upscale.
Just re-tubed my ARC Ref 5 SE and CD-8 with ARC sourced 6550 WEs and Upscale Audio matched 6H30s. The rig sounds heavenly. :)
However, my ARC Ref 150 has 1000 hours on its tube set. Sure hoping the KT-150 issue is sorted out by the time I'm ready to switch out the KT-120s.