E88CC Gold Pin Tube (Balanced Triodes)

Final update july 5thThe gold lion is the tube to use with the cth. The electro Harmonix goes stale after a few months of use. Base heavy and loss of fidelity. This happened with 2 of these tubes.Gold lion once broken in has no loss in fidelity with constant use. My only negative is that it is a bit hard to get my gold lion fully inserted with the cth amp.Update nov 21st...Bottom line....this is a superior tube to the Harmonix. The sound still improving as i continue break-in.Update Nov 20th....Switched back to my gold lion using Tidal "Hi-Fi" instead of spotify premium. Sound is much better now. I will need to break tube in for a longer period. More detail than stock but not positive it is better. However, much better than my initial impressions.Previous review....I have the massdrop Cavelli CTH amp.The amp comes with a $25 Electro-Harmonix tube. I decided to try the Genalex Gold Lion.Massdrop said that they found the harmonix to be best. No tube rolling necessary. I read that the amp was built around this tube.The bottom line is im ready to get rid of the Gold Lion. No contest! The Harmonix tube is superior because it is much smoother sounding throughout the entire range. The Lion sounded very harsh in comparison. Please note im using the Hifiman 400i phones which can be prone to brightness. The courseness of the Lion really stood out. I think that the designer and massdrop was correct when they said that the Harmonix was the best of all tubes tested for this amp.

CTH with LPS and LCDC2, already a somewhat dark and still resolving headphone, the Genalex really smoothed out the sound compared to the stock Electro-Harmonix. The stock tube and amp combination was a touch sibilant, but fast and more accurate, yet introduced scratchiness to the volume knob. The Genalex has a sublime, liquid mid-range, keeps the the bass and sub-bass, and takes the sharpness out of the treble, but cymbals still maintain a touch of their shimmer, though glossier. The LCD2C already had a bit of grain in the treble, like the HD58X (we can argue all day about that, you’re deaf if you don’t hear it), with this tube, the grain is ever so slight, less glaring than the MD cans.

Awesome Sauce.

No magic to be found with these particular tubes, they sound just like run of the mill Reflector 6922's.I have a NOS pair of 1978 silver shield Russian rocket logo tubes that are great sounding tubes that compare favorably with mid 1950's to early 1960's Amperex USA and Holland tubes. I am not knocking the brand just their E88CC goldpins.I had Gold Lion KT66's that are the best sounding current manufacture power tubes that I have ever heard. they were even better than the Black Treasure KT66's which are great tubes in their own right. thanks , William

good!!

Works as expected.

Nice sound