Most beneficial change .

Saki70

Which 34's did you try? CED Winged C? JJ?

Hi Jim ;
I tried EH's on the recommendation from Upscale Audio for the most dynamic EL-34 tube .
Once I get used to them I will then try some JJ's . I have been told that they may be better . Any thoughts ?

Thank you .

Speakers!

Your speakers are finicky as respects placement. Most who have them in a smaller room have them placed along the long wall. You may try moving things around a bit before spending more money (and time) on new speakers. How far do you sit from your speakers...and how far from the back wall (or corner, I guess, as you have them on the diagonal) do you sit? What type of music are you listening too? Do you have some very well recorded, non-compressed CD's to use as a reference? What are the power cords on the amp & CD player? Have you done a polarity check to make sure all is proper?

I found I liked what I got from the CED Winged C EL34's which came with my amp. So I just bought another set for each amp. The 3 mini tubes in fromt allowed me a wider variety of sonic changes by rolling them... so I got some of those two and found running Tungsol 5687 all around with the Winged C suited me best.

I've asked - posted threads here on EL34s, in the past, so you might search the archives for the various EL34 threads.

Another avenue is to Google EL34s, and read the guitar ampheads thoughts on the various 34s out there... NIB & NOS.

Some of the larger tube vendors post notes on the sound of their tubes too... like "The Tube Store" and others.

If I remember any or run acorss any I'll email you the link to them.

They ain't way 'spensive so trying out some shouldn't be to troubling. I had to get two sets of four. I'd think you would need less. The 'funny' cool thing is I've paid more for one little bitty tube than I did for all 8 of those Winged C's. lol

G' luck.