Retubed my Nitro with EL34's

[pauly]

For some reason , a lot of the tubes I just bought were not matched well so I couldn't use them. But I have been comparing the stock JJ KT77's to the El34's I have here.

I did order an integrated quad of two JJ KT77 and 2 JJ E34L's from Eurotubes. Unfortunately, the Kt77's were colder and drawing about 6mA less than the E34l's. Not a great match but I tried them for a short time. The result is that you get a bit of both tube characteristics. My opinion is that the Splawn with KT77's has a steroidal bottom end and by using EL34's , you tame it and make it easier to control with higher gain levels.

I ordered EH6CA7's from triode electronics. I've got a big thumbs up about them from a friend in France who uses them in his Suhr OD100SE+ .He said they have the same vibe as the average El34 but do have a little bit more of everything across the board. Sadly, my quad of 6CA7's were very poorly matched. Not sure how they made it out the door. My meter showed me dangerous mismatching so I turned the amp off and removed them. So I never heard what they sound like.

I had an old quad of JJ E34L so I tried them out and my meter told me that they were just about perfectly matched.Fired up the amp and liked the sound.The low end response is where I want it to be with high gain. The midrange response isn't as complex as the KT77's but is still very good. The treble is similar but a little crisper than the 77's which I think is fine.I prefer the clean channel with the 77's as it's warmer without being noticeably darker

Overall,I think Scott is building a very cool amp.It is a PCB built amp but I'm finding that Scott somehow managed to design the amp
to sound full and dynamic. I do think that it's happier loaded with El34's though.It has a friendly master volume so there's a nice taper but beware as this amp has monstrous transformers in it and can easily blow your ear drums out.

[kent]

So how are you liking the amp overall these days? Something that you might keep around for a while?

[pauly]

I like the amp. Overall, the gain channel is the coolest part but i haven't really recorded the clean channel to see exactly where it stands and how the vibe comes through in a mix. But I am pleased with the quality and overall width of sound the amp has. my impression is that Scott is building a quality product.

In comparison , I have quite a few Mesa amps.And the Splawn sounds bigger than all of them.At volume, the Nitro is going to be more easily heard and cut better than say a Recto that's at the same exact volume. Plus, I dont find the Nitro hard to play.

I think maybe the Suhr OD100 has it beat in the clean channel as the Nitro clean doesn't really achieve much crunch.As you increase the gain, it kind of gets more compressed rather than grittier. I suppose that a Nitro or Quickrod combined with a OD100 SE would cover jsut about any musical situation

[kent]

The OD100 has a nice gain structure as well, but it can be a little much sometimes if your not careful. Ive heard alot of clips where the amp sounds great, but they ruin it with too much gain. Almost like it records more gain than what you actually hear coming out of the speakers. If that makes any sense at all. But I guess that with all 3 amps would pretty much cover any sound that you would need. But if I had to pair 2 of them together I would pair the Quickrod and the Nitro together since they seem to blend nicely. I'd leave the OD100 by itself, or pair it with something else. Maybe the Quickrod and the OD100 might sit well together though,,,,