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I can imagine the Rachel being more between SE84s and earlier Torii MK? models from comparing the Rachel to the Taboo, which no doubt is different too... but using similar tubes as the SE 84.
As you remind me, I was talking about my adjusted Rachel sound. And thinking back, I guess all in all, I found the Rachel a little warm/slow and soft for me with stock tubes. And lacking in power with my 94 dB MG944s in this room on enough recordings to matter, I learned this by pushing the sense of power with tubes. I shifted to 6N2Ps, KT77s, and a GZ34 over a little while.... everything pushing the amp a little more and with some of these choices being more lucid and faster tubes, this contributed to part of that sense of being "louder." It was after doing this for "power" sense I realized I preferred this sort of maxed open/fast/articulate sound from this amp, at least since here it did those things without too much hardness. Long time now, it is a little vague, but my recollections.
Whereas, like I mentioned, though the MKIV was originally less forceful feeling than the MKIII, and the MKIV even less so now with modifications, I still prefer milder tubes for this very reason ... Max power tubes in my Toriis just concentrate the signal too much for me in general, so on the full and forceful sides for my ultimate preferences. But luckily there are so many ways to relax this, and sweet sounding very high quality tubes that are milder in just-so ways can open the focussed density and fullness into faster bass, more open space, speed, lucidity, inner and fine detail, sense of complexity, etc, etc.
But as we have talked about, so much of this common question of power comes down to speakers, space, and listening needs.
I don't rattle any windows here, preferring roughly 70s averages in general for serious listening from the seat. But I wonder if the dB averages necessarily tell the whole story with the impressive density, resolution and dynamics from these amps... you know, the thing where you can listen pretty quiet and get a lot of pleasure because the sound is so dense and complete. And with optimized signal density and dynamics, does it take a little more power to get the same volume? And if so, with the slightly lower volume more complete and resolving does it matter... just imagining...
Whatever.... the signal to me at average Db levels mainly in the 70s, and with dynamic peaks in 80's, in general this is plenty loud for me at these measured levels, but also near max before distorting some transient hits in this room and the ways I usually have it set up.
Here, for me, the acid test has been a pain over several attempts. So though I agree, it is always best to test in the room and system, I think it is also good to make calculated guesses based on our knowledge of these important parameters, and then decide... If I am near the edge, is it worth it to me to try an amp and possibly have to send it back, and then wait for another ? Tricky some times.
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