EL34 Lovers?

JJ Kt-77's are killer tubes that can be swapped in place of any EL-34. They are basically a "Super El-34" IMHO as they have a better electron flow construction than any EL-34 (because they were designed to do many things better electrically than 34's comparably). When I compared them to NOS Svetlanas (cryo'd too), Triple point matched Electro Harmonics, cryo'd JJ EL-34L's, NOS Mullard XF-2's....the KT-77's prevailed above all. These tubes are much more linear top to bottom, more transparent, better focused sound stage with better bass definition and cleaner treble to boot! They had me discover something I wasn't even aware of when I compared them to all the other el-34s. The 34's all have what I would call a "pasty" high end (to varying degrees mind you, the Mullards being the least offensive here) that I wasn't aware of until I substituted the KT-77s during comparisons, where the 77's highs where clean as a whistle! The only downside the 77's have sonically is that they are not as bloomy or romantic in the midrange as some of the 34's. That is a coloration IMHO but I can see how it may help some systems sound more involving. What more can I say, I love these new 77's that were just brought to market a little more than a year ago.

Pubul,You will be very happy with the music reference rm-9se.I have the rm-9 mk 1 and just put a new octet of el 34 winged c,I could not be more pleased.My system sounds better than ever.Troy

The Quicksilver Mid Mono or Triode are two other is amps on my EL34 "hit" list. Aside from the additional power of the RM9 (the QSs are 50 watts), which is proabably not necessary with my Merlin VSMs, the three amps would seem to be good ones to compare.

Audio Electronic Supplies(AES)Super Amp MkII, designed and manufactured by Cary Audio in NC, USA.

Fast, airy, dynamic, great frequency extension, with good bass. It sounds like a cross between SS and tubes.

I am using it with a full compliment of EH tubes for the driver, input, and output tubes. These tubes take a long time to break in. They are harsh for 100s of hours before they settle in, but they have great extension and tonal pitch.