EL34 upgrade

Jazzerdave,
Thanks for bringing up the Shuguang Treasures, you are correct that it is out of my price range here in the US. I travel to China/Asia usually at least once a year and believe they can be found for less than half of the US price. If they are significantly better than the Winged Cs, gold lions, and siemens I'd be willing to wait as I'm planning to be in Hong Kong and China this summer. Also thanks for the offer to demo the Siemens, I may take you up on it if my asia trip falls through.

Lastly, I was under the impression that all EL34 tubes were compatible, apparently they are not, so how would I determine which ones work with my amp?

-JerseyWalt

Don't overlook the input tubes. I thought they had as much improvement as the power tubes for a lot less cash in my JD 1000, which is essentially a parallel version of your 302.
I asked McShane and he set me up.

The Gold Lions no doubt about it.

I like the 6ca7 RCA/Sylvania EL34 Fat Boy tubes in my VTL ST 85 amp. I also like the NOS Mullard/Holland El34 but big money for these, luckly i have 5 of these that test new, also 3 quads of the Fatboy tubes, all test new.........Never know when i'll need a spare.

I have used the New Sensor Svetlana EL34, Tung Sol EL34B, Siemans EL34, and the Gold Lion KT77s. Comparing these to the SED EL34s (original pre New Sensor Svetlanas) I chose to return to the SED. The best of the others were the GL K77. The KT77 had better bass extension and drive, but lost the three dimensional soundstage that I enjoyed with the SED tubes. I found them to have a wide and flat soundstage in my system at that time. The Siemans were inherited and I have no idea how many hours they had on them, though they tested OK on my Hickock Cardmatic.