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In Reply to: RE: Are =C= winged C EL34s truly no longer being produced? posted by ElWoodrow on February 15, 2014 at 20:27:34
About 18-24 months ago I got an email from someone who should know about such things, and he said the last container of glass tubes had just been received in the US from the St. Petersburg plant. After that there would be no more.
The SED/"winged C" tubes appear to be no more, other than what is left in dealer stock. I am completely out of EL34, a fellow got the last 3 singles from me last week. I have a quad of 6L6GC and some close 6550C pairs - and when they are gone that's it.
They are more expensive because of supply and demand, pure and simple.
Follow Ups:
How do they compare to the new KT77's in your opinion?
I hope to grab a few new stock EL34/6CA7/KT77s soon for use in my Avantic amps.
TIA, j.
big j.
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
I think the current Genalex KT-77 is the best there is - and that includes a lot of very highly respected NOS as well. It's a really fine tube!!
I like the fact that it has some of the top end energy I find missing from many EL34s.
Jim, what do you think the closest in tone to the SEDs would be in a guitar amp? New Sensor Mullards?
Dan
In terms of toughness, the EH EL34 or 6CA7 seem to handle guitar amps well. As far as tone go, there isn't many new tubes that compared to the vintage Siemens, Tesla, or Svetlana's. Esp that classic "British OD" tone.
Fender, thanks for the reply. I was hoping that one of the New Sensor offerings or the Chinese EL34B would deliver in the classic Marshall circuits. I've tried the EH EL34 and it's not terrible but but not special either. I can't really bring myself to go down the JJ road. Man, I miss the brown base Tesla EL34's.If you find anything that really works well in the future please post to let us know. I'll do the same.
Dan
Edits: 02/18/14
I think the current Genalex KT-77 is the best there is - and that includes a lot of very highly respected NOS as well. It's a really fine tube!!
UNQUESTIONABLY!
Those that blatantly say no,either haven't heard the tube,or are just blowing smoke.
Honest amplification is better than 2nd order distortion anytime.
I'll just have to try some then! Thanks, both.
big j.
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
Jusbe
I joined the forum in 2005 and I would always remember the constantly displayed narrative that vintage tubes were best,and new production tubes sucked.Much of this was predicated on the Chinese tubes that were built from the mid 80s,to late 90s.What had happened was,Shuguang,which was owned by the Chinese government,quit building tubes in 1983 when things in China started changing.Shuguang was subbing their tube production out to aftermarket Chinese companies that didn't have the money nor the resources to build good tubes..This is why many people hate Chinese tubes.
Once the tube market took off again in the late 90s,Shuggie decided to get back in the game and build their own tubes once again..These of course were far better than those of the ones they subbed out however, some still haven't forgiven the Chinese for the shoddy tubes of the mids 80s to 90s,even tho Shuguang didn't build most of those tubes.
Anyway,when I would see people buying used vintage tubes at exorbitant prices,I would say to them,how do you ever expect new production tubes to get better in quality when you don't buy any so they have money to grow,invest,and make better tubes?
Finally,people did start buying new production Chinese and Russian tubes as vintage supplies have dried up.
In the case of Shuguang,Philips and Samsung are principle stockholders and they invest a good chunk of money in Shuggie I would guess...This explains Shuggie making the reproduction metal base Philips EL34, since Philips does own part of Shuguang and this is their original design.
You will no doubt be impressed with the KT77s,being the tube does everything right from top to bottom.
Honest amplification is better than 2nd order distortion anytime.
The new production power tubes are quite good and we now are seeing NOS new production like SED Winged C command premium prices. The supply of quality vintage power tubes is small and the odds of buying junk are high.
Michael,
Thanks for your thoughts. Having been hanging around here since '99/2000, I know what you mean with respect to attitudes to tubes from The East. It's been instructive to see attitudes change as production has improved.
My interest is really in the absolute rather than relative quality of these new production tubes and it seems they have come far. The nice thing is, if I, like others, can sink enough money into a decent supply of these '77s, there's a good chance I may live to see them invest our money in even better production - I hope.
Spotted those new metal bases. Would be curious to know how those pan out as well.
big j.
"... only a very few individuals understand as yet that personal salvation is a contradiction in terms."
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