Hi Andy -
I would make the case that this is very speaker dependent. As you may be getting from the other posts, the sound is different as opposed to necessarily better or worse.
Are you still using the AR 4s? For the longest time, I had the AR 302s as my speaker (latter day AR 5s). When I used KT88s and 6550s, the sound was more fleshed out, with more force. The EL34 sound was more delicate & balanced & intimate sounding. The KT77s and 6CA7s seemed to get the best sound for me. My amp was (still is) a Prima Luna PL5
Rich
I would make the case that this is very speaker dependent. As you may be getting from the other posts, the sound is different as opposed to necessarily better or worse.
Are you still using the AR 4s? For the longest time, I had the AR 302s as my speaker (latter day AR 5s). When I used KT88s and 6550s, the sound was more fleshed out, with more force. The EL34 sound was more delicate & balanced & intimate sounding. The KT77s and 6CA7s seemed to get the best sound for me. My amp was (still is) a Prima Luna PL5
Rich