[50jess]

EL34, KT77 or 6CA7?  Anyone who has tried these and compared?  Which is best for jazz music?

[JakeJ]

Disclaimer - I have no direct experience rolling these three types in an amp to say definitively but I feel the JJ tubes are a bit more sparkly in top end than the Gold Lion reissues which lean toward the classic Mullard Blackburn sound (more accurate and honest to the material, IMHO).  The only other brand I have direct experience with is the Shuguang EL34's from the early 80's and they have a very nice slice of the Mullard sonics.

YMMV

[irishsammy]

I've tried a lot of different tubes in the EL34 family and my experience has been:

EH 6CA7's - VERY even-sounding tube.  Just a tad hot in the treble but otherwise as solid sonically as I've heard.

EL34's:
TS EL34B's - Very good tube.  Just a bit sloppy in the bass at high levels but otherwise very good and they have a magical midrange.
Winged C EL34's - everybody loves them but I found them very, very dry.  I might just be more used to a tubey sound so these were not my cup of tea.
JJ E34L's - OK.  A little weak throughout the frequency range.  Sort of a "vanilla" tube.

JJ KT77's - Excellent sonics and drive.  I found them to best all other EL34's in terms of overall quality.  Fantastic midrange with plenty of sparkle up top and control down low. 

So based on this, I'd recommend either the JJ KT77's (which have had some quality issues by the sound of it but I got a good quad) or the EH 6CA7's.  I think either would work wonders with jazz. 

[medium jim]

EL34 and the 6CA7 are identical and often have both designations on the same tube/bottle.

I have never used KT77's, but have a lot of experience with EL34's.  The reissue Mullard EL34 is a wonderful tube, just a hint of midrange bump which would make it a good jazz tube.  If you want a neutral tube, go with something that is based on Telefunken tooling.

Jim

[mjosef]

In my ResponseAudio 3205/Jolida 302, I liked the GL KT77 over EH6CA7, Svetlana EL34 and JJ EL34.

YMWV

[Ericus Rex]

EL34 and the 6CA7 are identical and often have both designations on the same tube/bottle.

I have found that true 6CA7s, the big-bottle kind,  do not sound like EL34s even though they are electrically identical.  Just like 6550s and KT88s are supposedly identical but also sound different.

I've tried a bunch of EL34s and my favorites are the '80's Siemens.  They are more expensive than current production but nothing like NOS Mullard or Tele prices.

[jhm731]

Depends on the amp.

I like the JJ 6CA7s.

Here an excellent source for matched sets:

http://www.cryoset.com/catalog/index.php

[marvda1]

jim, how do the mullard reissue compare to the tung sol reissue?