Music Reference RM9 - user comments please

Interesting on the KT-88s. I myself have always preferred EL-34s. I thought both my Cary V12i and my RM-9 MkII sounded great with the Siemens. Right now I'm using a VAC Avatar SE with the National Electric EL-34s, but am getting a set of Auricle Musicblocs with the VAC (Chinese) KT-88s this week. The VAC guys like the KT-88s and feel the Musicblocs will present a larger soundstage and more frequency extension. Should be interesting to hear the differences.

Glad you like the Bent. I'm a going to be using balanced cables now so I'm waiting to see what John comes up with for a balanced design.

He should have something soon. Apparently a balanced autoformer design is a bit trickier than with a transformer. I was expecting to prefer the EL34 as well. Does the Avatar also run KT88s, or just EL34s?

The Avatar and Avatar SE run EL-34 tubes only. I believe the Avatar Super runs KT-88s.

Autoformers are a bit more work to get into balanced mode. John is a bit of a perfectionest so I anticipate a good 6 months or so before something becomes available. Until then I'm sure my Jeff Rowland Capri with phono will do just fine.

Pubul: I suspect that Roger gave you a set of matched tubes. In my experience, tube matching makes a huge positive difference in the sound. It sounds like you have ordered another set of KT-88s from another supplier. Will these be matched as well?

Roger's tubes are amazingly well matched in circuit. It really makes me question some of the folks out there selling "matched" pairs and quads. I won't name names but you do wonder if some of these tubes really are matched. Roger's are for sure. I ordered the Genalex from Jim McShane who seems to have a good reputation for taking care in matching tubes. They arrived last night, and I will run them tonight and check their bias in operation.