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6CA7/EL34 Offerings

Posted by strijw426 (A) on October 28, 2014 at 17:18:38

I see the following offerings under 6CA7/EL34 tube listings at Tube Depot
(I am not promoting them, just saying that I see these listed there):
Electro Harmonix EL34EH $14.98
Electro Harmonix EH-6CA7 $19.98 (big bottle tube)
JJ 6CA7 Power Vacuum Tube $17.48 (slender tube)
JJ E34L / EL34 $13.98 (slender tube)
JJ E34L Blue Glass Power Vacuum Tube $18.98
JJ EL34 Power Vacuum Tube $13.98
Sino EL34-B Power Vacuum Tube $14.98 (Chinese?)
Mullard EL34 New Production Power Vacuum Tube $22.48
JJ KT77 Power Vacuum Tube $19.98
Tung-Sol EL34B New Production Power Vacuum Tube $22.48

They also have some others that are quite high priced and out of question to me. The offerings from JJ alone are extensive and there are some descriptions with each one on Tube Depot's website, but honestly do they really sound that different? I do notice that some state that they can use higher negative grid bias and have more head-room to handle transient peaks. To me requiring higher negative grid bias sounds as though the tube has a tendency to run hotter and deliver more current than it should and thus has to be throttled back more to keep it in the normal cathode current range a given amplifier is designed to operate at.

Most of the list above is of slender tubes but there are some that look as though the bottle may be slightly larger than others even from the same manufacturer? I am not sure about that issue, it could just be the photograph.

I will be ordering some new tubes for a ST-70 I have coming from ebay, but would like to make an intelligent choice. One of the JJ series says it has less bass than some other versions?? That sounds strange to me. It is almost as if they produce lots of tubes and then characterize them and sort them according to how they turn out rather than controlling their manufacturing process well enough to produce tubes that always sound the same - just my thoughts.

I have been in electronics professionally since the early 1960s and don't want to start a flame topic. I am just trying to understand the current offerings and whether the differences described in the write-ups are based on technical measurements that are repeatable or if they are just subjective comments by various people who have used them.

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