Cary V12 and other tubes

Stick with the EL34's. The V12's sound with the KT88's (Svetlana's) was bland and lifeless. Dynamics were also squashed and constricted. Don't waste your time and money! I still have the Svetlana KT88's with only a few hours on them just gathering dust! If you still want to experiment, contact me and I'll sell them to you cheap! FYI, the Svetlana EL34's are much better than the stock RUBY's. In my opinion, this is a much wiser and significant upgrade than fiddling with other tube types. Good luck!

Aisip, are you sure the amp was biased correctly when you substituted the KT88s? And, if so, were the same values as the EL34 used?

The only reason I am asking is that the description of the change in sound you have provided flies exactly in the face of what happens when one moves from the EL34 to KT88. Number one, the sound should open up a great deal and become more clear and refined, at the expense of that luxurious midrange. Number two, the dynamics, power, and slam should increase by one quarter to one third, and this will most notably be apparent in the lower frequencies.

I don't mean to be contrary, just that things seem out of kilter.

And, if you have the KT88 available, would you be interested in selling a quad or octet? I will be needing to retube my Jadis, and would like to go with either EL34 or KT88, just really haven't decided on which yet as I love both. Thank you,
Joe

Trelja, I concur. I was also puzzled by the result. I biased the amp exactly as recommended by Cary. A friend of mine has the V12i monos. He also tried the KT88's and arrived at the same conclusion. Another friend tried a set on his Jadis DEFY 7, the result was magical! The tubes he replaced were 6550's. I think I still have 10 matched pairs of Svetlana KT88's. Email me directly if you're still interested.