To all you Cary SLI 80 owners, I'm looking for tube suggestions


Hello all, I have a one year old Cary SLI 80 HS and I have not changed a thing on it. Same tube set it came from the factory with. KT88's are Psvane, input tubes are JJ's.  It is a sublime match with my Volti Razz speakers. 

My question is this, what have you all tried with rolling tubes? Anyone try output variants? EL34's, KT 77 or 66's. Or have you changed out input tubes and noted and enjoyable difference?

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

Thank you,

Doug

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Anyway, I did some quick googles, and now Tesla is a branch of JJ?

The old Tesla are not the same as the new JJs. Cary used Ruby tubes on my six-pacs but those exact tubes aren't made anymore. Not sure what to say, sometimes you just have to give a new tube a try.

Thanks to OP's thread, I am getting some great ideas for EL34 replacement.

I prefer RAM Labs EL34's over RFT EL34's and Gold Lion KT88's.   The RAM Labs are a steal @ $140 for a quad.   Using NOS Amperex 7308's and TungSol 6SN7WGT's from Brent Jessie.

@pdreher , Are RAM tubes made by various  manufacturers and tested and matched  branded by RAM?  Did you buy your RAM tubes from the RAM site?

 Cary used Ruby tubes on my six-pacs but those exact tubes aren't made anymore

@russ69  , my Cary V12 came with Rubys.  At the time, I thought it was a great sound.  I was under the impression that these were EL34s that were rebranded by Ruby?  For some reason, and I may be wrong, at the time ('01) I was under the impression that the Ruby EL34s were Chinese?

 

@immatthewj  yes to both questions.   I've purchased tubes from RAM Labs multiple times  dating back to 2017 when I acquired a Music Reference RM9 MKII amp.  I recently purchased a back up quad of their EL34's as they are that good and a tremendous value @ $35/tube.   Audiogoner @clio09 took over RAM Labs when Roger Modjeski of Music Reference passed.

@immatthewj  yes to both questions. 

@pdreher , although the write up on RAM's site didn't come right out and say so, I am thinking what I did get out of it indicated that RAM's EL34s are the reissued Mullards?

@immatthewj My Cary V12 came with Rubys. At the time, I thought it was a great sound. I was under the impression that these were EL34s that were rebranded by Ruby? For some reason, and I may be wrong, at the time (’01) I was under the impression that the Ruby EL34s were Chinese?

.

Shuguang EL34BSTR labeled as Ruby. I had them in my Cary V12R and liked them quite a bit. They sounded exceptionally good after I recapped the amp with Mundorf EVO Silver-Gold coupling caps. I liked them quite a bit actually. For sale here at Doug’s Tubes to get some ideas for comparison.