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The EI's are the closest in sound to my vintage...

Amperex EL84's (Amperex is my personal favorite for their overall balance and balance is what EL84's are all about, IMO).

I have some Russian EL84's from Ebay (marked United/UK:-) that are also very nice (good bass but less forward and extended in the HF's than the EI/Amperex). I like the United's with classical music. These may be older production tubes as they look slightly different (the pins) than a current Sovtek that I checked out @ a local guitar shop and as far as the weird label goes - who knows?

Until recently I was running Japanese EL84's (Matsushita marked Baldwin) that sounded pretty much the same as Amperex, but had one go on me.

Don't know about the Manley, but the best bang for the buck in my vintage Pilot amps are the small signal tubes (not the output tubes). Good driver and input tubes make a world of difference. Maybe check out these (signal tubes) with other Stingray owners?

The only JJ tubes that I have tried were their 300B's and there does not seem to be much written on the EL84's. Hopefully you will get some new feedback on them.

Anyway, the EI's are approx. $40/quad @ Triode Electronics (where I purchased mine) and the United's go for $24/quad (or less) on Ebay. I broke one of the EI's and need to pick up a single plus a backup quad (I think that they are a good deal soundwise, but do not know how long they will last).


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  • The EI's are the closest in sound to my vintage... - DeKay 18:00:24 07/24/02 (0)


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