"Cleanest" Tubes...?

[Jeff O'Connor]

Runnin an old Ampeg V-4B with tube mod to use 6550's.
any input as to which tubes have the most headroom? Power & preamp-wise? Thanks Ya'll!!

 

[Persuader]

TungSol is a very good tube ,but i don't know if they'll fit near the transformer in a V4. GE,and Sylvania soung good too...of course these are all tubes not made anymore,and you would have to get NOS which could cost $.I'm not a fan of any new tubes...but some people may have had good luck with them.

 

[BassGreaser]

I really like the S.E.D. "Winged" C 6550's I'm going to mod my bassman 135 with them to make it closer to 200watts rather than 100w

 

[Oldie but noobe]

Check with Bob here

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

He's very helpfull

 

[tombowlus]

To my ears, JJ tubes in general sound fairly "clean." Their ECC83s sounds an aweful lot like my NOS Telefunken ECC83, though I do still slightly prefer the Tele's. With regard to 6550's, the Svetlana's also seem to get good reviews (and I really like them in my DB 728). I hope to soon receive the Trace Elliot Twin Valve Combo that I bought from Steve Azola, and he put two NOS GE 6550's in it (which are pretty much top of the 6550 heap), so I look forward to giving it a listen.

 

[James Hart]

I spent a LONG time researching 6550/KT88 power tubes in the last year or 2. I don't trust the NOS market (mainly because there is too much I don't know and don't care to about the history of tube making).

Of the current production tubes I chose Sovtek KT88 over all the rest and I'm very happy with them for the short time I've had them installed.

My second choice would be the Electro Harmonix KT88 and third the JJ

Keep in mind, one brand might make a good kt88 but a bad 12ax7...

and

the new reissue "old brands" are not the same as the original (TungSol, Mulland, etc)