Simna,
Years ago, all Line Magnetic amplifiers were equipped with tubes from Shuguang and although these tubes were cheap and not the best thing in the market, the truth is they sounded really good right out of the box. Usually the advice was (and still is) to replace the input stage tubes first, because these are the ones that impact the most of the sound.
I only replaced the small 12AU7 and 12AX7 for Gold Lions and the improvement was noticeable.
Nowadays I don't know if they still carry the Shuguangs from factory or if they use other brands.
As as for the difference between those two amplifiers - 34 and 88 - I'm afraid I don't know. They belong to the new breed of amplifiers that I haven't experienced yet.
Years ago, all Line Magnetic amplifiers were equipped with tubes from Shuguang and although these tubes were cheap and not the best thing in the market, the truth is they sounded really good right out of the box. Usually the advice was (and still is) to replace the input stage tubes first, because these are the ones that impact the most of the sound.
I only replaced the small 12AU7 and 12AX7 for Gold Lions and the improvement was noticeable.
Nowadays I don't know if they still carry the Shuguangs from factory or if they use other brands.
As as for the difference between those two amplifiers - 34 and 88 - I'm afraid I don't know. They belong to the new breed of amplifiers that I haven't experienced yet.