2. amps-preamps
  3. 158963-98156

Sophia Electric EL34 or KT88 ??

Looking to upgrade my tubes on the Primaluna Dialogue HP Integrated amp. 
Curious what people’s preference would be between the two, and why. Aside from the SE rebranding, I’ve heard some pretty decent feedback about these tubes. 
They are expensive though, and frankly I’m
not sure why the different price classifications. 
Trying to sort out the sonic characteristics of each before dropping the dime on a matched set of 8 for the PL dialogue HP. 
Generally I like the factory EL34 musicality and tone. I love a holographic, real life feel and soundstage. I once tried a full battery of KT150 but sold them. Tried as I might to get acclimated to them, they didn’t have the Stock EL 34 magic. Seemed a little more dry. More powerful but also a tad more sterile. 

So would the SE KT88 be any different? 

Anyone with personal experience with these tubes?
128x128whacky
whacky's avatar
whacky OP
53 posts
 
Wow

these are all awesome recommendations and definitely something I will look into. 
I was hesitant to spent the money on the SE tubes. Definitely had a few people recommend them highly after personal experience. But I love these other ideas as well. 
@johnss 
how hard is to replace the coupling caps? I’ll look into they tonight.  What’s the theory behind doing they? What do the coupling caps really do? 
Otherwise I’ll be checking out all those other tubes. The KT77. Tone plus sparkle sounds pretty nice to me. 
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,427 posts
 
@decooney,

Prima Luna recommends the KT150 tubes and they are safe to use in all the Prima Luna amps. They do not come standard due to the $100.00 price per tube. 
tuberist
951 posts
 
Gold Lion KT77s are great tubes. Very detailed and dynamic top to bottom. Only shortcoming I experienced was in the mid bass department; a little lean for my taste. However they are really good tubes
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,427 posts
 
I had good luck with shuguang  EL34 tubes in a Rogue Cronus Mafgnum, much more refined than the KT120's that the amp came with.  I hear the Gold Lion power tubes are good too, I use 6 of their signal tubes in my preamp.
whacky's avatar
whacky OP
53 posts
 
The gold lion Kt77 aren't terribly expensive at around $50. Definitely sparking my interest given how they are being described. 

The SE EL34 tubes are 3x as expensive for their top offering @ $150 a piece. Yikes. $1200 to roll some tubes is more than I can swallow presently.


Now I'm curious about the capacitor swap at this point. It seems like that could also be a method to unlock potential hidden in the already solid PL amp. 
More to discover