What's the best EL84 amp?

Exactly @fleschler. Roger and Tim were the only members of a mutual admiration society ;-) .

About ten years ago I entered a room at the hi-fi show held by the airport in Los Angeles, and was surprised to see Tim de Paravicini sitting in a chair, no one around him. I sat down and had a nice conversation with him, during which he told me a lot about tubes. Like Modjeski, he was an expert in the subject, and considered the tube amp designers job to be to maximize the quality of the signal coming out of a tube (or set of them). The loss of both Roger and Tim is a real tragedy for hi-fi music reproduction.

I don’t own an EAR amplifier, but I do own (and love) an 868L pre-amp, best one I’ve ever had.

We attended the same show (I attended LA/Irvine shows for decades) and I also said hello to him but I think it was in 2015-6 (I’ve owned the 864 and 890, 324 and Acute since 2006, sold the Acute and prefer the 864 phono stage to the 324 for a Dynavector 20X2 L). The huge difference in quality in use was installing a Synergistic blue fuse in the 864 and a purple fuse in the 890. I use Stillpoint SS Ultra footers under the 864 and SR MigSx under the 890.

I don’t know if after what I have done to modify and tremendously improve the 864 is as good, less good or better than the 912 which I contemplate(d) purchasing. I guess I need to hear a 912 with a SR fuse to determine that (your 868L is a 912 line stage). Do you live in the LA/Orange/Ventura County area?

Not any longer. I lived in SoCal (Glendale, Sherman Oaks, Burbank, Tujunga, and finally Palm Desert) from 1979 until February of 2016, when I moved up here to Vancouver Washington, just across the state line (the Columbia River) from Portland Oregon.

Ya know, the 868 is available both as just a line stage (868L), and as a full function (line and phono stages) pre-amp. I too would love an EAR 912 (Art Dudley said it was the only pre-amp he had heard which competed with his Shindo), but unless someone dies and leaves my some dough that ain't gonna happen! 

David Weinhart, (The AV Experts) an EAR retailer and friend of the distributor, Dan Meinwald, uses the SR purple fuse in his 912 which he has owned for over a decade. I recommend after using the blue in my 864 and purple in my 890, that you should try a purple fuse in your 868L and be surprised at the very significant improvement, especially in opening up the inner soundstage of instruments and voices (separating them) with more body, tighter bass and smoother highs. After just one hour, it was very good and only gets better (I’m not at 200-300 hours as recommended for full benefit, just 45 hours now).  Probably obtain an amperage rating twice as high as a glass fuse.  Dan Meinwald makes maximum recommendations.

Moderator-I am not associated with either the retailer or the distributor, although a customer of both.

The Fisher Chassis SA-16, such a surprising little amp from Fisher originally used in a console way back in the 60's.