Do power tubes affect the sounds of amps regardless of how they are voiced?

[teemuk]

What characteristic? Damping factors and responses are different because of different OT's, phase inverter circuits, loop gains and negative feedback. Overdrive characteristics are different because of cathode vs. fixed bias and NFB vs. no NFB. Dynamics are different because of different power supplies, damping factors and overdrive characteristics.
True, fitting in other tubes randomly could alter these characteristics as well but principally the circuit has the most prominent effect on things.
These circuits alone demonstrate that there isn't a specific EL84 characteristic one could isolate. Any characteristics are hugely altered by the circuit.

 

[guitarjazz]

Circuit design has a much larger impact.

I heard a Dumble with the cheapest Sovtek 6L6’s, sounded like....a Dumble.

 

[Laurence]

Aspen Pittman is trying to answer from the grave.

 

[ProfRhino]

I heard a Dumble with the cheapest Sovtek 6L6’s, sounded like....a Dumble.

where did you hear it ? YT ?
why didn't you play it ?
how loud was it ?
and most important - did you AB it vs one with good old glass, even a lowly clone ?
questions, questions ...
Rhino

 

[Albertus Magnus]

depends to a large degree.
if you're a power amp crunch guy like me, the differences between power tubes are glaringly obvious - possibly even more so than between preamp tubes.
the harmonics and drive characteristics are really distinct.
if you are using your MV (or similar) however, and generally playing high gain preamps at low volume, chances are you won't notice much difference at all.

often conveniently overlooked - to really get the best out of any power tube, they need to be properly biased (if the amp allows) !
simply swapping tubes on the fly is pretty futile for a comparison ...

ymmv,
Rhino

I agree here; it depends more on how much power tube saturation you get by turning the volume up. On my THD Bivalve, the power tube choice is quite noticeable but on a master volume amp - less so. Guitarists will notice sound colour variations that the audience won't. The differences can be subtle to non players.

 

[Spankyrigor]

Someone built me a 5F1 clone a few years back. One afternoon before I was to put it up for sale we stuck different power tubes up its rear end: 6V6, EL34, 6L6, KT77, 6CA7. the differences between the tube types weren't subtle: the 6V6 sounded the smallest. The KT77 was hella-brawny. NOS pieces sounded better than their current production counterparts, which we expected. Ended up keeping it.