Best EL34 ?

Eight 34s for $200.00? AP, you stole these, good for you.AP is right about the improvement made by tubes versus those made by cables etc.Those of you who haven't tried a great NOS tube need to. Start with your small tubes, a 60s, or better yet a 50s Amperex or Mullard 12AX7 or 12AU7 longplate.It is so much better then anything made today it'll seem like a component upgrade and not a tube upgrade. These can be had (once found) for around $200.00. $200.00 for an improvement that is usually staggering! No upgrade provides more value for money.

What I find interesting about NOS is how much of a difference they make even in relatively inexpensive gear. Recently, when I was stocking up on NOS for my main amps, I bought a Mullard tube set (Amperex for the 12AT7) for the Jolida 302 in my office. I had tubed it with Svetlana EL-34 and Telsa. It was a very significant upgrade in sound even if the tube cost was more than the cost of the amp. Given how compulsive people seem to be about the rest of their cables and tweaks I'm always suprised by the reluctance to go with NOS tubes.

Art Audio uses Valve Arts EL34's.I had a pair of their mono
Quintet and tried some Svetlana's and they were terrible compared to the Valve Arts.Go to tubeman.com and look under catalog and then popular output tubes.I think they are $50.00 a quad

I'm currently using (1) xf2 Mullard brn base single getter (2) xf2 blk base single getter Mullards (1) xf3 blk base single getter Mullard. Well that was before one of the xf2's died. I got a Siemens double d-getter coming and looking into a ANOS quad of Philips / Holland "Bugle boys" for $295.
The Mullars are clearing more refinded than the Shunguang
EL-34's. Still looking for some of those BRN "fat-base" mullards. MikE

I tried Sylvania. Soft, lush (nicely) sounding. The best experience I had was with military grade telefunken. Mine came in a standard gray box with the tele logo & the (german?) army order No on it. Very good resolution, good transient attack, had to drive them hard for higher listening levels, as I remember.

However, isn't the sonic result dependant to a certain degree on amp topology ? My experience was with a Jadis and later a Klimo Linnet pair. Maybe not applicable to other brands.