EL84 Recomendations

[bubs_42]

Sooner or Later i'll need a set for my Budda so what should I look for in a Quad Set.

[gtone]

Telam/Polam are nice and not too pricey if you can locate them, though they don't last a long time with circuits with high plate voltage. JAN Philips sound pretty good too, not overly expensive or rare. In a pinch, JJ's sound OK and are pretty durable for current production, have bit of fizziness noticeable on the cleaner tones but they have good distorted tones.

[murkat]

there is some nice nos telsa / RFT's on ebay... A lot of nos RFT's.

Someone found a lot nos over there, by the cases.

[JohnnyB]

+1 on the JAN Philips 12AX7WA. I bought a few in 1998 when they had just been released from the military and could be had for $12-15 ea. Now I think they're around $50 ea., which relatively speaking is a pretty good deal considering their liquid sound, low noise, shock resistance (mil-spec) and durability. They may not rank with the legendary '50s Telefunkens, but they are a good value and beat the crap out of current production from Eastern Europe and China.

[JGale]

Seconding the Telsas/RFTs.

[carfish7]

+1 on the JAN Philips 12AX7WA.

Just don't try to swap these for your el84's!

[JohnnyB]

+1 on the JAN Philips 12AX7WA.

Just don't try to swap these for your el84's!

Aah, they're both glass, little, and hot. What's the diff?

To the topic, I have a Trace Elliott Velocette, which is a compact PCB-based realization of the Vox AC15. Like the AC15, it has a hot bias. The JJ (Tesla) EL84s it came with sounded good but the amp ate'em like popcorn. I put in a pair of NOS GE's 13 years ago and they're still in there. Granted, it hasn't been played much lately but it was played daily with those GEs for 5-6 years, whereas it was burning through the JJs in weeks of casual use (this was around 1999).

And anyway, any time I can find Philips JAN NOS of any tube model I use at a price I can afford, I'll snatch some up.

I also like NOS Sylvania a lot and recently came across Sylvania NOS 6BQ5s at $25 ea. or $60/matched pair. That's the same price as JJ-sourced Groove Tubes.