KR KT150RK (Riccardo Kron)

Finally in the zenith of cold winter months in Europe, time has come to warm up the living room with some new toys and this time, no more and no less, in the form of the limited edition of KT150 tube, which was so far only available from TungSol.
Tubes are specially made by KR for LampizatOr and are within the physical limits of regular KT150 and of course within the tech spec of the TungSol ones which makes the rolling possible. Tube proudly cares the name of Riccardo Kron (RK) and it comes with all the perks from the rest of the RK series (300b, 242, PX4, 5u4g) meaning Zirconium coating, triple thickness glass, 9th degree of vacuum, etc.
I just received the quad so in the upcoming days/weeks I pronounce the winter tube rolling olympic games open...
IMG_8343.jpg IMG_8344.jpg IMG_8346.jpg
 
I have tried these: Rowan Mono. The Apogee restorer owns some (not sure if he still does haven't asked if he still has them).
The monoblocs (1,000wpc into 0.5ohms) or the Absolute Ones (3.5KW into 0.5ohms)?
Note, they cant work with 1 ohm Scintillas as those speakers don't have transformers in them. Thus not compatible with Rowen tech. Well, they could if you put a cooling fan on the ONE monoblocs to stop them from overheating and going into oscillation (something about beta droop?)

The Neg. Output Impedance tech mimics the high current brute SS amps for short periods (where the dynamic demands of the music occurs at inflection points) and additionally injects extra voltage to boost the damping factor dramatically to manhandle the woofers and force them to comply (sounds like BORG technology, LOL)
 
Last edited:
The monoblocs (100wpc into 0.5ohms) or the Absolute Ones (3.5KW into 0.5ohms)?
Note, they cant work with 1 ohm Scintillas as those speakers don't have transformers in them. Thus not compatible with Rowen tech. Well, they could if you put a cooling fan on the ONE monoblocs to stop them from overheating and going into oscillation (something about beta droop?)

The Neg. Output Impedance tech mimics the high current brute SS amps for short periods (where the dynamic demands of the music occurs at inflection points) and additionally injects extra voltage to boost the damping factor dramatically to manhandle the woofers and force them to comply (sounds like BORG technology, LOL)

I only heard the Rowans on Perigees, a ribbon dynamic driver hybrid speaker designed by Graz. In my house, that is. I don't think I ever connected them to the Duettas I had at the time as I had £30K's worth of Rowland monos in the house too. Or if I did, I don't remember it.

I didn't feel any urge to pursue Rowans any further.

Technically interesting amps, though.
 
Finally in the zenith of cold winter months in Europe, time has come to warm up the living room with some new toys and this time, no more and no less, in the form of the limited edition of KT150 tube, which was so far only available from TungSol.
Tubes are specially made by KR for LampizatOr and are within the physical limits of regular KT150 and of course within the tech spec of the TungSol ones which makes the rolling possible. Tube proudly cares the name of Riccardo Kron (RK) and it comes with all the perks from the rest of the RK series (300b, 242, PX4, 5u4g) meaning Zirconium coating, triple thickness glass, 9th degree of vacuum, etc.
I just received the quad so in the upcoming days/weeks I pronounce the winter
 
TBH I had them at home for like several weeks and due to family stuff just did not have time nor willingness to play with them so at the end I had to give them back without trial :-( . But size wise RK version fits Ref75 at least while regular KR KT150 is no go dimension wise...
 
TBH I had them at home for like several weeks and due to family stuff just did not have time nor willingness to play with them so at the end I had to give them back without trial :-( . But size wise RK version fits Ref75 at least while regular KR KT150 is no go dimension wise...
It is now about a year of productio and i can't find any review about the tube..
 
Yes quite strange i would say especially for regular KR version...might be due to size...RK version is presumably planned to be used in DACs (Lampi TRP) and priced quite high so that might be the second reason...
 
Quite curious about your results. Pondering using these KT150 in my Zanden 6000. Any impressions you would care to share ?
 
Are you sure you can go from KT120 to KT150 with Zanden 6000?
Oh yes, indeed. Been installed by Kazutoshi Yamada himself, but the 6000 readily accepts it.
P.S. And I'm eying his Phono stages since a while?…:p
 
Quite curious about your results. Pondering using these KT150 in my Zanden 6000. Any impressions you would care to share ?
Hi;
As I wrote above I had this quad at home for a certain period of time and at the end I just did not have time to try them out and had to return them which was a bummer. But except that, strange thing is that I'm not seeing anywhere any "reports" of their usage...

Sorry I could not be of any help...

By the way - if you're using KT120 why not to try with regular TungSol KT150 as that is what I did in my Ref75 and the result was really great and worth of trying...

Cheers;
G
 
Hi;
As I wrote above I had this quad at home for a certain period of time and at the end I just did not have time to try them out and had to return them which was a bummer. But except that, strange thing is that I'm not seeing anywhere any "reports" of their usage...

Sorry I could not be of any help...

By the way - if you're using KT120 why not to try with regular TungSol KT150 as that is what I did in my Ref75 and the result was really great and worth of trying...

Cheers;
G
Hi,
Sorry did not read that part.
Currently, my 6000 is mounted with the Tung Sol KT150 installed at my home by Yamada a year ago.
Just wondered if the KR (considerably dearer) would be an improvement.
 
Oh yes, indeed. Been installed by Kazutoshi Yamada himself, but the 6000 readily accepts it.
P.S. And I'm eying his Phono stages since a while?…:p
Great! My friend has a 8120 power amp with KT120 and is thinking about going to KT150. What did Yamada San say about this change?
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing