Hi Don, no as yet have not tried messing with the tubes yet.
I do have some Opera Consonance Cyber 800 Mono Blocks which have EH Big Bottle 6CA7's in them so really there is no excuse not to play.
The 211IA accepts only EL34's or 6CA7's. Kt77's I believe not, as the impedance is different to the EL34. Have read about one guy doing it but frankly I would not.
Where I live in South Africa things are not so easy if you wish to play. What with distance lousy postal service and careless and crooked Customs.
I am going to swop out the Power valves on it this week and will report my findings.
I have the Line magnetic driving some Klipsch KG4's. Absolute magic vocals in Triode.
And it rocks in Ultra Linear.
The Operas are doing duty on Vandersteen 2CE signatures with an Audio research SP16 pre.
Truth be told The Line Magnetic is more than equal to those Amps.
In some ways I prefer it.
But to be fair, if you want some wellie out of the Vandies the Operas do a better job.
Here is an amp that cost me the equivalent of $1300 new they are a bit cheaper here than in the States. Up against Amps and a Pre that cost me $6000+.
I could happily live with the Line Magnetic as my Amp on this system.
That says something, nothing else I have had that is affordable comes remotely close.
I have played with the 6922's and the 5687's in the Cyber 800's and quite honestly it was not worth the bother or the expense, nothing wrong with the origional Chinese Valves.
Line Magnetic and Opera Consonance are two Chinese companies that can compete sound and quality wise with the best the world has to offer. They have certainly got them beat in the bang for buck stakes.
But I do not think this will last for much longer the better Chinese stuff is a bargain now, but as things go the prices are sure to rise.
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