I hate to say it, but now I think maybe I like my amp in ultralinear mode versus triode

@immatthewj having delt with both of these characters on amps, different tubes, options, I’ll say you are a bit on your own until you partner with a great local tech who can open up these amps and tell you what’s really going on inside of them.  

@decooney , well, okay, but you did tell me that the only tube you wound up using were the Chinese Ruby branded EL34s, right?  At the time I needed to retube that amp, Jim had a bunch of tubes listed in his inventory, including the GLs, which was part of the reason I contacted him for that retubing.  (The last I read he said he was retiring and prior to that wasn't going to sell any tubes made in Russia anymore.)  I was quite happy with those re-issued Tung Sols, and I will say that he gave me what seemed to be better personalized service than any other tube seller I've bought from (with the possible exception some NOS small tubes from of Andy from Michigan).  Jim would send me an email every day or so telling me how the matching process was going, and as I recall, it took a few days or maybe even a week until he emailed me telling me he had two matched sex-tets ready to ship. A couple of years prior to that I had bought a dozen reissued Mullard EL34s from Viva, and it was wham, bam, thank you ma-am, and I had them, but they didn't run long at all (about two years) before the bias(es)  started doing goofy things.

Anyway, as another aside question, did you ever experiment with running your V12 configured in anything but FULL triode or FULL ultralinear?  I mean like 1/3 + 2/3s?  I know that the owner's manual says only run FULL one way or the other, and after the amp arrived to me I talked to Kirk Owens about it, and he didn't sound too crazy about the idea. . . .  I know that the Stereophile review said it was okay, but I always felt better about defaulting to what the manufacturer said than what Stereophile said.  I think I remember that I may have tried it for a real real short time, but I do not remember how I felt about it, meaning it was nothing at all close to as dramatic as the Mesa Baron was.  

In audio reproduction, linear is sexy.  Ultra linear is ultra sexy.

In audio reproduction, linear is sexy. Ultra linear is ultra sexy.

If you say so; however, neither word strikes an erotic chord for me.

WRT UL, It can be made switchable by having a switch connect the screen of the power tube to its plate as opposed to the tap on the output transformer.

Thank you for that, @atmasphere , that's a nice nutshell that even a layman (at best) like me can just about grasp.

@immatthewj to answer your questions, after I recapped with those specific caps, and tried different designs of silver-over copper and more pure copper interconnects between source/preamp, preamp/amp, in my case, and for my particular speakers it was a dead-on match for my taste and ears. Not to over think this too much - I simply enjoyed those particular EL34s at the time. I figured out who was making them for Ruby lable brand [at that time] and the sound is where I wanted it to be, for me. So, I did not change to different tubes, although I came close to trying the reissue Genelex KT77s regardless of what anyone says about them, and the only reason I did not do that is I wanted to try separate tube mono blocks with a dedicated ultralinear circuit, double the transformers and power caps instead - with my speakers. Someone really wanted to buy my V12R at the time, and I struggled with selling it. I sold it only to try the monos as an experiment to run with my speakers [trying different amps with my own custom speakers I build/built], to install the exact same caps, and even better Nichicon power caps, and compared from there. Everything was how I needed it on the V12R. Had I kept it, I might have tried KT77s, and once again, keeping bias down to 200-210 per side, max. Sound find, tubes last longer. btw, I’m trying new input tubes this weekend, on the monos to try and model one input tube set I had on the Cary V12R, trying to bring the sound of the new amps closer to what I had with the V12R prior. Just testing, trying, listening.  

Oh, and No, I did not want to mess any more with the prior amp or the switchable circuit or trying to un-switch it, left it as is, it sounded great as-is, and decided to move to dedicated ultralinear mono amps.  This has been yet another chapter of learning, upgrading, listening and has paid off nicely too fwiw.