I've been happily listening to my TAD-60 amp driving the Silver Iris OB speakers for a couple of months now. The amp came with EL34 (Svetlana) tubes. Running them 8-16 hours a day, it's just a matter of time before needing replacements. The amp is set up to take EL34, KT88 and 6550 tubes (triode and ultra-linear mode.) I'm looking for opinions on which way I should go. This is a bit of a major purchase for me these days, so I could use some experienced guidance here. Things to consider include longetivity under long hours of playing, non-fatiguing high end, taunt bass and good midrange for acoustic instuments. I'll be listening mostly in triode mode (unless one of the other tube types proves to sound better in ultra-linear mode.) I listen mostly to jazz and folk with some classic rock thrown in quite a bit.

Here's the amp I use.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/TAD-60.html

Here's the speaker drivers used (mounted on open baffles.)

http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/drivers.htm

Let's hear what you experienced tube rollers have discovered with amps that can do this type of conversion.
Thanks.

Dave

• my amp