6L6 vs EL34

@trelja Yes we are and Vu has the best ears of anyone I know and I always go with his opinion. Just need to give it some thought as I am really happy with where the system is now. And I love this amp, Pavel to me built some amazing sounding amps for Vu and some indestructible ones. I feel like I really lucked out landing this amp and always want to consider any changes to it. And I bet you wish you still had that 45/2a3 push-pull between you and me pretty sure i saw a pair of 45 pushpull monoblocks there this weekend :) I am sure those Quads sound amazing pretty sure you're powering them with Jadis now?

Jon, there are considerable differences between the technical parameters of the EL34 and the various versions of the 6L6, many of them in the direction of the 6L6 not being able to handle voltages, currents, and power dissipations that wouldn’t be too high for an EL34. That is particularly the case for 6L6s which precede the version that has a GC suffix.

I assume the person who suggested the conversion is aware of these things. But depending on the design of the amp and the nature of the conversion choosing a 6L6-GC rather than earlier versions (i.e., 6L6-GB, 6L6-GA, 6L6-G, 6L6 no suffix) may be preferable or even necessary, and may result in greater longevity of the tubes.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Al thanks as always for your technical knowledge and trenchant comments. The conversion idea hadn't gotten past the musing stage and Vu and I haven't seriously discussed it so we haven't gotten quite that far. These guys design and build great sounding reliable gear, including amps using the 6LG tube so I am assuming they do know of what you speak. But good to have that knowledge for myself thank you!

Im lucky, I can use many different output tubes in my amps....  I've had 5881, 6l6, KT88, KT66....  and I keep going back to EL34.   They all sound good, I guess I just prefer the EL34 tone.     I would like to try some KT77,  just retubed to Mullard repops so maybe down the road.

New Tung Sol 7581A are impressive. Search forum for my comments.