You're not at all far away from the top 12AX7 and 12AU7, so it may not prove worth it to you to run any farther down that road. My personal opinion is that Jadis amplifiers wake up and come alive with the right EL34 tubes. That's something to consider, but you may feel otherwise. Likewise, for whatever reason, I've just never heard the Wilson Sophias sound right. Maybe that's just me? Conversely, the Sasha can melt me down in a puddle, and I think would mate splendidly with the DA60.
Likely, some of aspect the DA60 cannot move forward. Which drove my writing that all components have their flaws. In my opinion, the DA60 has three:
1) It imparts a sweetness / euphony on the music. Something altogether different from warmth or bloat or the syrupy sound you get from products such as Quad ESL63, Conrad Johnson, Pass Labs, etc. that people label "tube-like". I have a pair of sunglasses with blue lenses that just make everything in the world look better, my own sort of "rose colored" glasses. The DA60 does something akin to that, though to a fraction of it in absolute terms. That characteristic makes almost everything sound better, but I must admit it diverges from absolute purity
2) A bit fat / lush in the lower range. It's obviously not lacking in low frequency extension or slam, and few components embody the "iron fist in a velvet glove" more than the DA60. But neither can I deny it also veers from neutrality. Personally, I like that more than not, as the other side of the coin means cold, clinical sound that most, including me, find unpleasant and even irritating
3) It's a tick slow. That's not to say it's slow amplifier. But it's not a fast amplifier, and that becomes noticeable in comparison to some of the very fast amplifiers I've had. The cathode bias gives it a bit more elasticity to the sound as that same topology does for the VOX AC30 compared with a Marshall JTM-50, albeit balanced by the DA60's solid state rectification which is tighter than tube rectification. Of course, the cathode bias does lend that lush and beautiful sound, and the ability to simply and mindlessly plug and play output tubes
Again, I've owned and own an awful lot of amps. There's definite magic I've found in certain 2A3, 300B ($100K Audio Note 300B monoblocks at a show may have produced the absolute best sound I've encountered, but who really knows?), and fixed bias EL34 amplifiers, but top to bottom and left to right, I consider the DA60 the best of all of them, overall
Likely, some of aspect the DA60 cannot move forward. Which drove my writing that all components have their flaws. In my opinion, the DA60 has three:
1) It imparts a sweetness / euphony on the music. Something altogether different from warmth or bloat or the syrupy sound you get from products such as Quad ESL63, Conrad Johnson, Pass Labs, etc. that people label "tube-like". I have a pair of sunglasses with blue lenses that just make everything in the world look better, my own sort of "rose colored" glasses. The DA60 does something akin to that, though to a fraction of it in absolute terms. That characteristic makes almost everything sound better, but I must admit it diverges from absolute purity
2) A bit fat / lush in the lower range. It's obviously not lacking in low frequency extension or slam, and few components embody the "iron fist in a velvet glove" more than the DA60. But neither can I deny it also veers from neutrality. Personally, I like that more than not, as the other side of the coin means cold, clinical sound that most, including me, find unpleasant and even irritating
3) It's a tick slow. That's not to say it's slow amplifier. But it's not a fast amplifier, and that becomes noticeable in comparison to some of the very fast amplifiers I've had. The cathode bias gives it a bit more elasticity to the sound as that same topology does for the VOX AC30 compared with a Marshall JTM-50, albeit balanced by the DA60's solid state rectification which is tighter than tube rectification. Of course, the cathode bias does lend that lush and beautiful sound, and the ability to simply and mindlessly plug and play output tubes
Again, I've owned and own an awful lot of amps. There's definite magic I've found in certain 2A3, 300B ($100K Audio Note 300B monoblocks at a show may have produced the absolute best sound I've encountered, but who really knows?), and fixed bias EL34 amplifiers, but top to bottom and left to right, I consider the DA60 the best of all of them, overall