Best EL34 tubes

My vote for the best EL34 of all time is the Philips Holland XF1 metal base tube. Second place is the Mullard Blackburn XF2 double getter.

 

Exactly.

I run my El34 SET at ~32W dissipation, 7W above standard and the reissue GL KT77s lasted a year and sounded really good. I'd buy them again but new tubes are a crapshoot.

 

I don't think "intolerant" is the right word. Rather, threads evolve and take up a life of their own. The OP asked what were the best tubes and that question was answered. Someone else asked what the best current production tubes are and that question is being answered. No "intolerance" here--in fact, all I see is tolerance of the questions being asked!

 

The EAT tubes are made in the former Tesla factory in the Czech Republic and not in China. See here:

https://www.tubedepot.com/t/brands/euroaudioteam-eat

They don't make an EL-34, so discussion of EAT doesn't belong in the thread. But yeah, they are astronomically expensive.

 

Well, although I know the old tubes could take that despite only being spec'ed for 25 watts but you can't expect a tube spec'ed for 25 watts to handle 32. I'm surprised they lasted more than a few hours. A year, that's actually pretty remarkable for a new production tube. My beef is that with lots of these tube if you ask them to handle 20 or 22 watts at idle, they're gonna wind up red plating sooner than later.

 

I have a pair of Kebschull 35/70 that run the EL34's very hard (subtle red plating). I used to get about a year out of the primo Winged C's. I am going on two years from a set of RFT's, very tough tubes that sound very nice.

 

re: new tubes. My old amplifiers, Eico HF-60 monoblocks, were notorious tube eaters. 500V plate, 60mA per tube was the factory bias point. The previous owner, who did a lot of daily music listening, burned through a quad of NOS Mullard XF2s in a year or so. Not a big deal back in the 50s, but now? Yikes.

Anyway - the one tube that could take that kind of abuse and survive was - surprise, surprise - the toss 'em in the can Shuguang EL34B. Sure they didn't sound as good as XF2s, but they were dirt cheap. I used 'em for background music and would switch in (and rebias) the XF2s for serious listening time. The EL34B never red plated or showed any grid glowing/misaligned screens issues, but it did have a dark tone and some loss of definition. YMMV.

 

You can and I do, it works just fine with decent tubes. Winged C have gone 2 years, RFTs have no problems at all, these tubes are lasting their expected lifetime. The GL77 lasted about half their expected lifetime which is about right for new production tubes. 32W isn't actually that close to red plating an EL34.

 

Been researching potential upgrade power valves for my ProLogue Two for a while now - from the stock Chinese KT88s. Thinking what would I want more/less of from the amp; reviewing others' experiences in types and makes, etc...

All considered, in short, I've just order a matched quad set of Svetlana Winged C El34s. Really looking forward to seeing how they work out.

 

The Amperex went to a new home of a forum member, and as expected, the report came back that they have that glorious midrange and high end that makes NOS EL34s such a desirable tube. One of my Dynakit MK IV amps needs a visit to a shop as I can't find problems with the quad cap/main board/under chassis components (my fear is one of the transformers has issues), and so I didn't get a chance to hear them. The amps might have come with the Double D getter type of EL34 I just sold, so it would have been interesting to hear them as they were from the factory in the first place.

 

Brian,
You said the best EL34's , so that would be the Mullard EL34 made in the UK with the XF1 designation and dual halo getters. They will not be cheap but they are the best, other than the same tube with big single halo getter and the metal base!!!

 

Just got in seven beautiful Mullard rebranded Sylvania xF2 single halo EL34s, datecoded from 1969 to 1971 - time to dig out the Maximatcher and see how they fare.

 

..and here they arrrrrrrrrrrre:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...ebranded-sylvania-xf2-el34-6ca7-tubes.488918/

Nicely matched up quad, pair, and a single looking for a new home.