Seeking best sounding El-34 tubes for my power amplifier


I have a 150 watt monoblocks  amplifiers made by Thor Audio. Thor Audio is out of business for quite a few years. Each 150 watt monoblock is round and has 8 El-34 output tubes on each monoblock for a total of 16 tubes.  I currently have Sovtek tubes. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you. 

kjl1065

amongst old stock alternatives

1) the gold lion genalec gec kt77’s were viewed as the best... superb all around

2) followed by the mullard or amperex british or dutch made el34’s, also superb slightly weaker in bass but palpable and refined

3) third best were japan made matsushita el34’s with seam top, these were made on mullard tooling moved to japan after mullard ceased production in the uk, lovely spotlit voices and imaging

4) svetlana el34’s were next best (winged c st pete factory), beautiful balance, a little less refined

5) siemens telefunken skinny body el34’s with dimple top ... somewhat lean in character but clear and precise

6) usa made ge or sylvania fat boy 6ca7’s next (somewhat rolled off)

the above are probably cost prohibitive in an amp set up needing many multiples of these though

probably best to use what is available from upscale in terms of modern tubes but even then tube supply from russia is curtailed these days, so you are looking at jj/czech or chinese alternatives

note that modern day versions of gold lions mullards and so on are all russian made... not necessarily bad tubes but they are not the real deal from the 60's-70's-80's from first world western europe and so on

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chickenoregg, I have an older Avatar SE.

Kevin of VAC recommended vintage Mullard EL34 and vintage Sylvania 12AU7, and that’s what I currently use, Mullards XF2 and Sylvania long black plates from 50s. For preamp I have Mullard long narrow plates, though he didn’t mention them and suggested his selected stock Chinese. 

I also tried early and late 50s RCA black plates 12AU7. Early 50s RCA sounded almost exactly as the Sylvania, great, but Sylvania were a touch better, though. Late 50s RCA were significantly worse than both, a bit dark and closed in, but not bad.

I did first have Svetlana Winged C EL34. Not a bad sound but the Mullards are so much better.

I would be surprised to hear, if someone can find easily 16 octad matched NOS well performing tubes! 

Yeah, it would probably take time, and perhaps not exactly NOS, just that test NOS.