Tube Recommendations, Part 362

[Brad737]

Hello all,
I'm impatiently awaiting the arrival of my Liverpool clone from Malaysia. I got the complete amp, minus the correct Heyboer transformer set. My question is which tubes you all recommend in the Pools? I've heard great reviews for the Tungsol 12AX7, and the ones from Tungsram as well. What do you recommend for the EL84? I've heard a couple of decent reviews for the JJ's. Anything other than NOS I should consider?
Thanks,
Brad

[paulster]

Tungsram pres and GE EL84s are a pretty good combination, and not ridiculously expensive.

An owner who knows a lot about Liverpools swears by Valvos for the power tubes, but you're going to pay heavily for a quad of those.

[UR12]

I am running NOS GE long plates and NOS GE EL84s and love that combination in both my Rocket and Liverpool. Just my 2 cents

[castor]

I use EI 12AX7 or NOS telefunken in My Express.
For EL84 I'm not so expert.. but many friends of mine use GT ones.
Castor

[muchxs]

JJs are the best of the new stuff. A while back we built two 18 watters as identical as technology would allow. We carefully matched components for tolerance so we weren't going 10% one way on one amp and 10% the other way with the other. The big difference was that we used 100% NOS tubes in the "good" one primarily Mullards, we used a vintage Greenback that was well broken in just for an additional variable. The other amp used a full line of JJs straight from the box and a 50 watt Weber Silver Bell. Both amps sounded really good. If I had to make any changes I would use a 25 watt Silver Bell and switch V1 in the JJ amp to some good NOS.

It's not necessary to buy Mullard, Amperex or Telefunken in NOS. If you shop carefully among private vendors you may luck into some Mullard EL84s relabeled "GE", they're still Mullards. Dealers are hip to those. GE, RCA and Sylvania... Sylvania in particular... made millions of EL84s for console phonograghs, they're not uncommon in NOS. ANY of the U.S. made EL84s are better than new production IMHO.

I have my favorite source of low buck Mullards for V1, I'll tell you about that once that source dries up!

I don't buy ANYTHING EI. I avoid Chinese tubes although they make an excellent KT66. Current Russian production is o.k. but I don't buy 'em, it offends me that they're selling Sovteks as "Mullard" and "Tung-Sol".

[Buschman]

The older style Tesla el84(before JJ) sound superb. I also like the new TAD el84s which are Chinese. They seem very beefy however. I have also used their 5881 small bottle & it sounds great. !2ax7s are a real tossup. All the new stuff seems pretty inconsistant. My next tryouts will be the Sovtek 12ax7lps and the JJecc803-s. Both os these have spiral filiments which are supposed to be quiet. The only Groove Tube mullard clone I tried went microphonic in 10 minutes.

[Brad737]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Now, where do you purchase your tubes? eBay?
Thanks,
Brad

[muchxs]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Now, where do you purchase your tubes? eBay?
Thanks,
Brad

eBay is tough because it's so competitve on 12AX7s. Anything good tends to go sky high, you also have to be very careful about misrepresented merchandise. A lot of vendors will sell you their pulls and culls and keep the good tubes for themselves.

In general large lots tend to sell for less per tube than smaller lots and singles. Lots sold as "untested" sell for less than "tested" tubes. "Tested" is frequently complete B.S., I've seen vendors just copy someone else's item description right down to the test numbers.

NOS apparently is subjective these days. When the seller describes the device he removed the tube from and still says "NOS" in the description is it "NOS"?

Untested is a crapshoot and not for the reason you might think. A lot of vendors will sell their junk as "untested" then claim they didn't know when you come back with a complaint. Feel out your seller, this is one area where it sometimes pays to buy from someone who is ignorant! Good stuff poorly described from a seller who has no clue equals a cheap price!