I have a 280 V12 R and also love the EL-34's. I have used EH KT 88's which are certainly more extended top and bottom but we all know do not have that magical midrange and I've also run SED Winged "C" 6550's which are somewhat of a compromise between the 2 in a good way: they still have good extension but take off a bit of the edge which the EH 88's had while smoothing out the mids in a more relaxed presentation and hinting at (but not yet approaching enough) the magic of the EL-34 mids. What I am about to try next I had to call Cary to get the OK for. Apparently if your V12 has the later generation transformers (as do mine because I checked), they are fully capable of handling the new Tung Sol KT 120's. They hold tremendous promise and should be really cool in varying degrees of triode as well, not to mention the added dynamics, headroom and punch...
BTW This is a great amp.
BTW This is a great amp.