The tube cages have to be removed from the inside after removing the bottom chasis plate. You will see three pairs of screws on the bottom of each of the two outter circuit board. Unscrew ONLY THE MIDDLE PAIR!!! (These screws have retainers and spacers, so it may not look like they are backing off, but the tube cages wil start to come up and off of the top of the chasis.) The tube cages are tapped for these machined screws so that you will have to replace the cages after you roll or replace tubes, as these middle screws run all the way through the ciruit board, and need to be anchored to the tube cages to provide stability to the circuit boards! One of the EAR 834 weaknesses, in my opinion! What I did, was to use hex nuts and tighten them down on the exposed ends of the middle screws, so the tube cages are not part of the anchoring system, and are removed from the system (easy to roll tubes, and looks better without the cages, in my opinion.) To use the tube cages with this set-up, a little Blue Tack on the corners and middle of the cage bases will anchor them fairly well to the top plate, and have the added benefit of damping cage vibations, which would be transmitted directly to the circuit boards, as would happen in the original factory set-up! Yes, this integated is self-biasing. And you can also try 6L6's for output tubes instead of the EL34's. Contact me if you need any more info, and for a copy of the manual (I can fax it, if you have a fax!)
