regarding eml, my experience is that nothing sounded as good in my EC2A3 amp as their 2A3 solid plate. granted, i've never tried the holy grail RCA 2A3 black single plate, just too pricey and risky, or the eml mesh since they supposedly have notable reliability issues and don't provide the dynamics that the solid plates do, yet i've tried numerous other NOS and current production 2A3s. you should know that eml still has production and reliability issues and their tubes may not last as long as most others so ensure, if you do get a pair, you buy from an authorized US dealer. and unfortunately, even if you are covered under their warranty, if you have an issue covered under the warranty, jac, the eml go to guy, will probably try to weasel out of it.