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EL34 upgrade

I'm currently experimenting with my Jolida JD302B and various tubes. I have 3 makes and each are vastly different from each. In terms of preference I would order them as such: (1) Svetlana, (2) Sovtek, (3) Shuguang. They are all the budget versions. I am considering upgrading to either the SED Winged C or Gold Lion Reissue. So my question, is whether I would expect improvements to the preferred Svetlana? I have a pricepoint of $200 for a matched quad and not sure whether I need to go higher to really hear a difference. Also I'm sure I'm sure there are others, so please weigh them in as well.

-JerseyWalt
qclabrat_1
josefm
53 posts
 
I liked the GL KT77 the best of the small number of tubes I tried in my Jolida...JJ 34, EH6CA7, Svetlana 34(stock tube).

However you need to specify high biasing tubes with the GL 77's...the first set I received didn't come up to bias @ maximum travel of the trimpots.
And I would also suggest slightly under-biasing them.

I hear good things about the GL 66's, but have yet to try them.

YMWV
mikirob
955 posts
 
Another nod for Jim McShane.
adam18
670 posts
 
I replaced the original Svetlana EL-34's with a matched quad of Genelex Gold Lion KT-77's ..... my Rogue Audio Cronus sounds better than before.
bbro
191 posts
 
I second Maxmads' suggestion re the NOS Tesla EL 34s. There is some info on an Audiosociety shootout against a host of tubes in blind tests in which they came out on top. I hopefully can find the file of the shootout and post it.
213cobra
885 posts
 
Mesa Boogie, the guitar amplifier company, has a cache of NOS Siemens EL34 that are offered as matched pairs on their web site store, directly, $150/pr. These are re-labled Mesa STR-450 tubes, after surviving stringent testing on Mesa's proprietary tube tester. They are well worth the price for any EL34 amp, and will improve upon any current production EL34. The supply is fixed and won't last forever, but guitar players are mostly cheapskates about this sort of thing, so these tubes are around for now.

Phil
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