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EL34 Stuff You Need To Know

Posted by IdlerWheel (A) on April 17, 2007 at 14:54:58

I will try my best to keep this to the point. A first hand comparison of the JJ E34L and the SED EL34. Have lived with the JJ's for about a year and have had no reason to leave them, but curiosity finally got the best of me to try the SED's that so many have liked so much. Got the quad of SED's and fired them up and let them settle in awhile...then gave them a listen. Yuck!!! Not what I expected at all....I'll stay with my JJ's and get rid of these quick on ebay. Here is what I was hearing from the SED's compared to my JJ's that were doing a nice job.
* rolled off top end but still had sibalence I didn't have before
* VERY one dimentional
* veiled mids...like a curtain thrown in front of the speakers
* lack of life and presence
* mid range dynamics lost
* not open and transparent
* dark overall quality
* sound stage very closed in
OK, here's the important findings.....I have found that the JJ E34L's sounded so much better to me over the span of time I've been listening to them at 40 MA per tube and not at the higher 50 MA typical setting.
So the SED's went in and I set them at the same 40 MA...and by the way they were absolutely perfectly matched (TubeDepot). After lots of playing time, the sound I was hearing was what I listed in my description....they SUCK! Well, why not set these babies at 50 MA and see what happens???? WOW!! WOW!! again. These babies respond to bias settings like crazy....I like them now....I really do....everything is the description above went away! Nice tubes....this many people couldn't have been that wrong. BUT, there is still some kine of magic in the JJ mid range that we all love.
That's all folks.

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Kimber Kable

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