I am still worried about the draw on the PT with those big bottles. The filament numbers are:dalrymple wrote:Assuming success, are you going to roll the dice and check out the Gold Lions? Etched glass sound great, providing better..., better looks. Costs more too! The tung sols are studly in the 60, so you cant go wrong there either, but without the etching on the bottles, are we really upgrading? Of course, you will only see the glass when you take them out of their little boxes, but you will see them!
6L6: 4 x 900mA = 3.6A
KT66: 4 x 1300mA = 5.2A
Add the heater for the 12AX7 @ a nominal 150mA (can go as high as 300mA) and we get:
6L6 = 3.75A
KT66 = 5.35A
In my mind, it all boils down to the rating of the 6.3V tap on the PT: If it's rated for 4 amps, the KT66s will be pulling too much current and the transformer *could* fail. On the other hand, if it's rated for 5 amps it *should* be OK and if it's rated for 6 amps, it's all good.
Now, power transformers do have some room in their specs, but the question is HOW MUCH room do the PTs in our Vyps have? My guess is that they're not the most bullet-proof units out there. But I can't seem to get a definitive answer.
The Tung Sol KT66s only draw 900mA so they're a direct replacement. My concern with these, though, is that everybody seems to think that they're fake... just regular guts in a big bottle (hence the 900mA heater filaments). So, would I be dropping $200 (pro'lly $300 Canadian) on tubes that aren't really KT66s? Or are all those people slagging the Tung Sols full of crappe?
As for the Gold Lions, the etching would indeed be visible: Part of my plan for the T120 head is a glass window etched with the PV logo: Them bottles are going to be up front and visible
Cheers!
Gary