Are they as good as the price implies that they are?

Are you looking at the KT77 or KT88 tubes?

As far as I remember, the old Mo Valve (Marconi-Osram) KT77 tubes were always considered the bees knees in the UK — for quality on a par with 'proper' Mullards. I have a 100W (at least) Burman head from the '70s and four Mo Valve KT77 tubes were standard issue for this. When I bought the amp, about 20 years ago, it still had two original KT77 tubes in it — unfortunately plus a couple of 'who knows?' EL34s. It now has four Shuguang KT77 tubes. I know nothing about these, but didn't have much choice at the time. I have so say that they sound OK and haven't blown up yet, although this amp isn't used much nowadays.

In the UK we are currently offered Sovtek-made Genelex Gold Lion KT77 and KT88 tubes. I don't know where these are made or how good they are, but the supplier's blurb is full of high praise (then again, it would be). If they do what they say they'll do then maybe they're worth the price (£28 and £36 each respectively in the UK), particularly considering what you'd have to pay for the NOS genuine article.

It's at times like this that a 50W head with just two power valves has a sudden appeal.

12AY7s, 12AX7s and 6V6s.

I like my 5e3 clone and my 6g6 bassman because they only have two power tubes. Very easy to sort out when the tubes eventually shit themselves.

i have a Burman 4000 Pro with Gold Lion black base kt77s as well. they sound like gold. at the price for original gold lions you better have absolute proof they are matched!

I was using 4 EL84 gold lion ressiues on my Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special they sounded great but the they blown up quickly in that amp, anyway the seller replace the set of tubes for free to me and i have sold the new replaced set in Ebay without risking again to burn them

Hrmmm, sounds like there's better tubes in that price bracket.

Check the AC15 tube recommendation thread in the Billy Zoom discussion section...

This question again?? Genelex Gold Lyons went out production about forty years ago. (I sold my last quartet Last week) Mike Mathews, who started Sovtek, now owns the name and logo. That means he can legally put the Genelex name and logo on any Sovtek tube. The same goes for Mullard and Tung-Sol. He copywrited those after the original rights expired. He did NOT acquire the original companies, tooling, designs, blueprints, specs,etc. If you're expecting the new ones to have anything more in common with the original tubes than just the name and logo,you're dreaming. They're not copies, re-issues, or "based ons", etc. That having been said, they're not terrible. They're just not the same design as the originals. You know, once an originally copyright or trademark has expired, anybody can own them by just filling out the registration and paying the copyright fee. These are all companies that have been out of business for many years, so they were free for the taking. The oddest case is Svetlana. Mike owns that name and logo too, but that company is still in business and they can't use their own name anymore. They have to sell real Svetlana tubes as Winged C, while Mathews can market Sovtek tubes with the Svetlana name and logo on them. What's ever weirder, is that a bunch of you are going to read this and still buy Mullard or Tung-Sol tubes expecting them to be better than Sovtek.

I take it they're no better than any other new-production in that case? Has Mike just put them in a pretty case and decided to charge a massive premium?

JoseValentino wrote:

I take it they're no better than any other new-production in that case? Has Mike just put them in a pretty case and decided to charge a massive premium?

Not just the logo is diferent the manufature is also diferent even if they are all made by Sovtek

This especifications are from the Genalex made in russia:

gold plated grid wire and carbonized plate structures. The glass bottle and spacers have been engineered to reduce noise and microphonics.

Here is a store wich sell the two tubes and the diferences on price is more reasonable 6$ per tube in el 84´s:

http://tctubes.com/6BQ5-EL84-7189A-N709-tube-types.aspx

was waiting for billy to chime in.. thanx!...

the original late 70's early 80's black base Gold Lion are the best thing you may ever hear. they will cost you but are worth it IMO but don't go buying a "reissue" in name only and expect it to live up to those old ones.

chester wrote:

the original late 70's early 80's black base Gold Lion are the best thing you may ever hear. they will cost you but are worth it IMO but don't go buying a "reissue" in name only and expect it to live up to those old ones.

of course

BillyZoom wrote:

This question again?? Genelex Gold Lyons went out production about forty years ago. (I sold my last quartet Last week) Mike Mathews, who started Sovtek, now owns the name and logo. That means he can legally put the Genelex name and logo on any Sovtek tube. The same goes for Mullard and Tung-Sol. He copywrited those after the original rights expired. He did NOT acquire the original companies, tooling, designs, blueprints, specs,etc. If you're expecting the new ones to have anything more in common with the original tubes than just the name and logo,you're dreaming. They're not copies, re-issues, or "based ons", etc. That having been said, they're not terrible. They're just not the same design as the originals. You know, once an originally copyright or trademark has expired, anybody can own them by just filling out the registration and paying the copyright fee. These are all companies that have been out of business for many years, so they were free for the taking. The oddest case is Svetlana. Mike owns that name and logo too, but that company is still in business and they can't use their own name anymore. They have to sell real Svetlana tubes as Winged C, while Mathews can market Sovtek tubes with the Svetlana name and logo on them. What's ever weirder, is that a bunch of you are going to read this and still buy Mullard or Tung-Sol tubes expecting them to be better than Sovtek.

Sovtek as recommended by BZ....great tube...don't waste your time with JJ's.....just my .02.....

Excuse me? What does that mean? Are you confusing EL84's with KT88's?

I have only experience with El84´s Gold Lion Ressiues i know KT88´s are diferent tube but i havn´t try them, my though are that the prices Sovtek applied to their diferent brands are relationed with the manufacture and look (why not), some expert enginner in the web can perfectly ear the diference between a gold Lion Ressiue tube and a Sovtek tube, in my case Mesa Boogie El84 vs Gold Lion EL84 the diference was obvious and the gold Lion sounded mucho better or Hi Fi also compared them to JJ and again the Gold Lion are brighter no ice pickyin the high a lux tone, some can do not like this lux tone in their amp it happens, i recomend to try them before to buy also take care with the matching for your amp, my Genalex burn really quick beacause the matching wasn´t done even if the specification of your amps tell ¨no matching requiered when changing tube¨ i know Genalex have do and efford doing personal matching, mine was buy on Ebay like a matched quad tube set and they don´t worked for my amp it is beacause they burn quickly after a month of use, i guess the voltage of the Mesa Boogie Amp was to high for this tubes, so buy to one store were they do matching personalized.