[haziz]

Sophia Electric has a reasonable price deal on their remaining EL34 (not the "Baby") amps and still offer the option of the capacitor upgrade. The Yarland FV-34B III is available new within the US for $420 and appears to be largely the same amp except for the use of the chinese 6N2 tube (equivalent to a 6AX7 tube) instead of the 6U8 tube used in the Sophia amp.

Any advantage to the 6AX7 tube compared to the 6U8 as the input/driver tubes for the amp? Excuse me if I am using the wrong terminology.

Has anybody compared the two amps?

For that matter has anybody heard either EL34 amp? Opinions?

How much improvement if any can I expect from the capacitor upgrade, which apparently involves swapping out 4 capacitors and replacing them with 4 of the Sophia capacitors? Sophia Electric handles the labour/soldering etc.

Is the Sophia Electric equivalent to a Yarland FV-34B II. Was there ever such a beast? Is the FV34B III an update/upgrade/downgrade?

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Hany.

 

[cotdt]

People tell me that the EL84 sounds better than the EL34, so why not just go for the Yarland EL84?

 

[daveDerek]

for that matter how do either of these compare to the el84 Doge 6210?

 

[cotdt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveDerek /img/forum/go_quote.gif for that matter how do either of these compare to the el84 Doge 6210?

I use the Doge 6210 and it is my favorite amp. Probably all EL84s will sound similar and the tube will make the larger difference. The Doge 6210 offers crossfeed, 2 headphone outputs, selectable headphone impedance, and uses a very good transformer output, which I prefer over capacitor-coupled output amps. Highly recommended!

 

[daveDerek]

.

 

[daveDerek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cotdt /img/forum/go_quote.gif I use the Doge 6210 and it is my favorite amp. Probably all EL84s will sound similar and the tube will make the larger difference. The Doge 6210 offers crossfeed, 2 headphone outputs, selectable headphone impedance, and uses a very good transformer output, which I prefer over capacitor-coupled output amps. Highly recommended!

hmm, you make it sound very interesting. are there pictures of it?
how hot does it run? i wonder how it compares to the little dot 3+.
the ld3+ can drive small efficient spkrs and the akg k1000. does the doge have these capabilities? the sophia elctric el34 amp does.