PLEASE HELP! My ears are bleeding! New 6CA7s installed.

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Last night I replaced the E-H 34's I've been using (15 watt/channel triode amp powering Quad 57s and early JBL S7s) with new E-H 6CA7s. I hooked up to the JBLs first. The sound was delightful, just what I was hoping for: nice smooth vocal midrange, harmonically rich upper midrange and highs, tight and extended bass, nice imaging. After an hour or so I switched over to the Quads and heard the same satisfying improvements. Within the next hour the midrange, particularly, deteriorated and became strident. Emmylou Harris recordings that I listen to all the time, which usually have very "hot" sounding vocals became nearly unlistenable, harsh and edgy. After another hour or so I could not take the torture any longer, so I replaced one 6CA7 in each channel with an EL34. The sound improved greatly, but my ears were so shot by then that I could not really tell if that was an improvement over the all EL34 setup. Does anyone here know whether the midrange with the 6CA7s will sweeten up as they burn in, or can you offer any burn in observations about these tubes? I really don't want to suffer with them unless there is a sonic light at the end of the tunnel. All replies greatly appreciated.

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Topic - PLEASE HELP! My ears are bleeding! New 6CA7s installed. - JRL 09:46:18 04/19/06 (3)

Are you sure they are biased correctly? (nt) - Chris O 10:37:21 04/19/06 (2)

Re: Are you sure they are biased correctly? (nt) - JRL 10:52:32 04/19/06 (1)

Re: Are you sure they are biased correctly? (nt) - Dimitry 13:00:25 04/19/06 (0)

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