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Hey I found some information on the mighty KT66 that is mostly just trivia, but it might be of interest to some. It was developed by the MOV company and introduced in 1937. MOV stood for Marconi Osram Valves. It was meant to compete with RCA's new and sucessful 6L6 introduced in 1934. The 6L6 was the first comercially available Beam Tetrode. A Beam Tetrode offered almost as much power as a pentode but had less shot noise and partition noise. This allowed for a sweeter high end, more like a triode when used to amplify sound. The KT66 out performed the RCA 6L6 by a considerable margin.
The KT66 played an important role in Britian's millitary electronics during WWII. This was particularly true in radar systems, were it was a reliable performer in sub circuts working the audio frequancy ranges, and also for intermediant frequancies up to 40mhz. During the war British companies shared research findings, and GEC began to also produce the KT66 under license, and became one of the principle producers of the KT66. By the 1950's the KT66 was well established as the absolute king of beam tetrode power tubes. One British tube designer marveled at how year after year, the KT66 remained unbeatable for decades. Of course Jim Marshall and Ken Bran showed the world how great it could be when pushed into overdrive too.
The KT66 played an important role in Britian's millitary electronics during WWII. This was particularly true in radar systems, were it was a reliable performer in sub circuts working the audio frequancy ranges, and also for intermediant frequancies up to 40mhz. During the war British companies shared research findings, and GEC began to also produce the KT66 under license, and became one of the principle producers of the KT66. By the 1950's the KT66 was well established as the absolute king of beam tetrode power tubes. One British tube designer marveled at how year after year, the KT66 remained unbeatable for decades. Of course Jim Marshall and Ken Bran showed the world how great it could be when pushed into overdrive too.
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