El34 vs. KT88

Find yourself a used Audio Research amp and preamp in your price range, 60 watts per channel or more with Audioquest cables. It's the perfect match with your older 2Cs.

Forget about 300Bs and any other low powered amps. They will not cut it in the bass on those speakers.

What tubes did ARC usually use? Just curious.

The Audio Research amplifiers that are the same vintage as your 2Cs used 6550 output tubes. If you have a budget of $2,000-$2,500 you can pick up an ARC Classic 60 and SP-14 preamp and you will have a first class system that is a perfect match. Add a Vandersteen 2W subwoofer and you will be hard-pressed to find a better sounding system regardless of price.

The ARC is not in my opinion very sweet in the treble. It is by their own account very "High Definition". The sweetest tubes of their own nature are the 6L6, the 300B, the EL-34 and finally the 6550s. I find KT-88s to be somewhat less harsh in any given system than the 6550s. The system however will ultimately decide how the tube sounds. The Vandys naturally have a sweet treble and I would be surprised if anything other than certain crappy tubes of any type would produce strident highs. I happen to be a big fan of the current production Gold Lion tubes. But the KT-88 is a more potent tube in general than an EJ-34 which was really your question. My answer go for a top quality EL-34. Gortunately there are many from reasonable to ridiculously expensive it is your choice. I used to prefer the JJ E34L blue glass but have heard good thing about the reissue Mullards and others.

You may also want to consider the Genelex KT-77's which is an EL-34 variant . I use the Genelex KT-88's in my Cary SLI-80F1 and like them very much as they produce solid bass with extended highs and a nice mid-range basically an all around nice tube.

Chuck