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EL34 equivalent tube types

I've had a Coincident Dynamo 34SE sitting around for my bedroom system, and I just on a lark decided to hook it to my main system for some 100% tube/analog listening sessions. I'm actually amazed at the sound this 8 watt amp is putting out.  Right now it's equipped with the (I believe) stock EL34 tubes (from tubedepot). Just looking around, vintage tubes seem to be extremely expensive, but are there equivalent drop in replacements that I could be looking at? Just to play around with, nothing serious.

This is also making me consider a more powerful tube integrated (my speaker makes recommend at least 30 wpc tube amps), but similar topics already exist so I wont create another thread for it.
nitewulf
wolf_garcia
6,696 posts
 
I had bad luck with JJKT77s in that they don't cut the sonic mustard compared to the KT88s (either surprisingly great sounding no longer available Sovteks or newer Gold Lions) currently in my SEP "Fire Bottle" HO. I might try the GL 77s, but...meh…the amp sounds so damn good I kind of lost interest in 77s…go HO!
markwatkiss
508 posts
 
I have a Dynamo 34SE MKII which has more grunt than the original.Have used Black Treasures,Siemens and Gold Lion KT77s'.All good but my favorite is the KT 77's.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
@wolf_garcia "I had bad luck with JJKT77s in that they don't cut the sonic mustard."

You're right about that.  Not sure why, but JJ did a poor job with this tube.  Kind of a head scratcher, as their E34L (as Viridian / Marty pointed out) and EL34 sound very good.

I also think the Shuguang EL34B will surprise a lot of people, and sound fairly close to the JJ EL34.  And though I'm generally not a fan of most Russian tubes, for a bigger and robust yet easy to listen to sound overall, the ElectroHarmonix Big Bottle 6CA7 make me happy
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noromance's avatar
noromance
9,772 posts
 
Would a 7581a work? Tung Sol have a new tube out that is real nice. Super bass and crystal highs. I replaced a quad of 6L6GC with them.
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