Grant Fidelity Audio - Read Only

[Dr Ears]

It doesn't make a lot of sense...to have $25 dollars...worth of input tubes...

with $600 worth of output tubes...

So ...How should you manage your tube budget?

In a typical vacuum tube integrated, you generally have a pair of input tubes,
one or two pairs of drivers, and a pair or quad of output tubes.

Ranked in order of importance:

Outputs...Inputs...Drivers.

Very roughly...I would allocate 50-60% on Outputs...20-30% on inputs...
and 15-25% on drivers.

Here's the dream set for the I-534

Telefunkun ECC 803S $400-500 a pair (when you can find them)...the
Telefunkun ECC 83 $200-300 a pair (will satisfy most "ears" out there)...

Sylvania "Fat Boy" EL 34 $125-150 each (getting hard to find)
Siemens 1970 EL 34 $50-75 each (great buy and will satisfy most "tubies"
out there)

I haven't tried the new 300B se, so I'm going with the Sophia Princess
Carbon Plates list $599 a pair.

Rectifier? Don't get me started...on rectifiers...again!