Please note my comments here are referencing the V12 with the KT88 tubes only, not with the EL34 tubes. So please take these comments in reference to that setup. I had just auditioned a used V12 (no letter version) that I was interested in buying. It had KT88 tubes in it. Based on that audition, I took it back. Constricted and not to my liking. When I took it back, the salesperson at the store said they had that impression on their listen also, even after warm up (my session was after 8 hours warm up time. The bias settings recommended in the manual or from Cary would not work for the KT88 tubes. I could not get the LED's to light at the 225 to 250ma that Kirk at Cary told me to set up for these. They need at least 250ma and really, to get all the led lamps to light, I needed 260 ma. I even tested all the tubes and all were very strong. It still didnt sound too good to me. I emailed Dennis Had with my impressions asking for comments, but he didnt respond to my email other than sending me a reference to a recent review of the six pacs. I love Cary stuff having an 805C and 300se sigs. So the experience with this amp was surprising to me. I did look under the chassis and it is very complex looking compared to the SLM-200 model which was designed to use KT88/6550. Maybe that is why I like the SLM better (other than the higher power fact). I also found the V12 transformers with these tubes ran hot hot hot. And the output transformers on the stereo version were smallish to my eyes.]. My 2 cents, this amp is probably good with stock EL34 tubes based on the reviews, but I didnt have the opportunity to listen to it that way. Only with the Svet KT88 tubes. My 2 cents, hope this helps.
