Hi..I have owned many Audio Innovation Series amplifiers and others in my time on my quest to find a valve amp that I like the sound of and to date still own a pair of Audio Innovations S1000G - Mk3 "Gold Limited Edition"  Monoblocks and I love them...and as such would not wish to part with them due to their sound quality suiting my taste and are very rare

Now here's a thing I am trying to grasp...Border Patrol says you should change the EL34 output valves in all Audio Innovations EL34 based amps to 5881 as there is a danger of the cathode shorting out in the EL34 and this has put me on a quest to find out why and to rectify this situation not only for myself but other Audio Innovation amp owners who like myself prefer the EL34 sound opposed to the 5881's..

So why is it that all these other well known amplifier makers of EL34 amps have not had this problem with the EL34 tube?

Like Radford - Leak - Manley VTL - Marantz - Art Audio and Copland etc they have been producing amplifiers with EL34 tubes for donkys years and have had not this problem with the EL34 valve  and their amps are still around today to prove it...

I firmley belive that the EL34 is not a poor quality valve that has this inherent problem as Border Patrol state and as above there are so many valve amplifier makers who still use the EL34 valve today...

They dont have this problem and if this problem did exsist then why bother making an EL34 in the first place and why carry on producing them such as Electro-Harmonix and Sovtek even CVC and then you have the re-incarnation of the original Mullard EL34 being reproduced today...

In conclusion I have come up  that it is only in Audio Innovations Amplifiers that this problem exists with the EL34 and  we have to look at an Audio Innovations and other EL34 based valve amplifiers circuit design to find out why this problem may exsist and what if anything can be done to provent the EL34 from destroying itself whilst in use in an Audio Innovations amplifier...

LAST UPDATED 11/08/08