Sophia Electric New EL34 tubes

a lot of improvement over the Russian El34

I was going to start a new thread and then I saw this one. I bought the new blue bottle EL34 ST.

OK, I just got my tubes in from Sophia Electric and have maybe 10 hours on them. Richard from SE talked me into trying the EL34 tubes. I told him I just want a rectifier tube for my Modwright PS 9.0 and he said try them and then send them back. Ha ha, what a devious trick. I will not be sending anything back. After letting them warm up a few minutes in my Linear Tube Audio ZOTL40 the sound was shrill and bright but after about 10 minutes a rapid change in sound character became evident and the magic started to appear. These are the absolute best new production EL34 tubes I’ve ever heard and after a little break in might best my NOS Mullard XF2 EL34 and my British NOS GEC KT77.

Lance

I tried the Sophia tubes but I preferred the GL KT77. The GL have a warmer and fuller mid range which sounds better with female voices. They also have a better soundstage. The Sophias are a bit more dynamic but I prefer a better mid range.

I have around 100 hours on my Sophia EL34's and to my ears they sound better than my Gold Lion KT88's and KT77's and NOS Mullard xf2 or xf4 EL34'. The Sophia Electric EL34 tubes to me sound that much better from top to bottom. I liked the sound of the KT77's and the NOS Mullards of course but the Sophia's had that magic which just draws me in. If I had to pick an order it would be 1-Sophia   2-NOS Mullard   3-KT77   4-KT88. Thanks everyone.