6V6 or EL84?

[gary sanders]

Building a Champ-ish bedroom blaster.Cant decide on Power Tube.Whats the pros and cons of one or the other?

I have a great RCA 6V6 I want to use and a Made In Holland Zenith EL84.Both burning a hole in the shelf.........

[thejaf]

I love the sound of overdriven 6V6s, sound to my ears very similar to EL34s. To me, EL84s are usually too nasally and flubby when pushed hard.

[Lonely Raven]

Single ended or push pull?

Why not have sockets for both?

[gary sanders]

Single end.That actually did cross my mind

[Phil_S]

I'm thinking the reason I don't build for EL84 is because I'm not as fond of the sound compared to 6V6. I am also thinking that you really need to voice the preamp a bit differently to get the EL84 to sound its best. Someone suggested two sockets. It's a good idea, but without some tweaks to the preamp section I suspect you'll find one of those sockets becomes permanently empty shortly after you complete the project. If it's "champish" then stick with the 6V6.

One other thing. If you plate voltage is going to be over 300V, then you are quickly moving out of reasonable territory for the EL84.

[Structo]

I have a Carvin Belair that has 4x EL84's.

I had never had an EL84 amp and I was blown away at how loud this amp was.
A lot of head room too.
You would think it was a 6L6 amp if you didn't know better.
Of course it depends on the design of the circuit and all but man, that amp could blister paint on the walls when it was flat out.
It was spec'd as a 50 watt amp but more likely a 40-45 watts.

Now take a 18w Marshall with two EL84's and it's a different animal altogether.

I think many times we try to pigeon hole what various power tubes sound like and to some extent there are certain characteristics that coincide with the type of tube it is.

For instance, take a Fender 5E3 Deluxe.
We all know it is a 6V6 amp and gets pretty gnarly after about 1/2 turn of the volume pot.
Classic distortion.

But take another design using 6V6 tubes and you can attain a lot of clean headroom.

I guess what I'm getting at is it really depends on the amplifier design parameters as to how the amp sounds when pushed or distorted.

[jjman]

I'm thinking the reason I don't build for EL84 is because I'm not as fond of the sound compared to 6V6. I am also thinking that you really need to voice the preamp a bit differently to get the EL84 to sound its best. Someone suggested two sockets. It's a good idea, but without some tweaks to the preamp section I suspect you'll find one of those sockets becomes permanently empty shortly after you complete the project. If it's "champish" then stick with the 6V6.

One other thing. If you plate voltage is going to be over 300V, then you are quickly moving out of reasonable territory for the EL84.

+1. Most voltage surprises in the power supply are higher than planned for. Unless you're certain you will get a tranny for low PS voltage, go 6v6. I have about 400 net plate volts on mine while initially expecting closer to 300. I think it was a "tweed" vs SF power tranny that got me. I'm good with it since it's definitely not too loud and is biased properly. It' my best sounding amp tone wise. If I had planned for el84 I'd be in trouble.

[gary sanders]

My PT says 325V on paper but Im using SS rectifier so Im expecting that too

[Tone Lover]

Gary if its a 325-0-325 you will get around 425 volts after rectification. I like a 300-0-300 for 6v6.s gives upper 390,s just right
Thanks Bill