Anyone have experience with different brands of EL34's?

MadFloyd

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I currently use Electro Harmonix but am wondering about Genalex (Gold Lion), Mullards or Tung Sol's.

I would love to know what sonic qualities each of these tubes bring to the equation.

Thanks in advance.
 

mep

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For current production EL-34s, I really like the real Svetlana tubes, not the New Sensor tubes branded as Svetlana after Svetlana lost the rights to their name. That would be the "winged C" tubes. The original Mullard EL-34 tubes set the gold standard for EL-34s.
 

MadFloyd

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mep

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Andi is correct. He is showing you the *real* Svetlana EL-34 tubes and the picture you show is the New Sensor fakes I talked about. Those New Sensor EL-34s that are branded Svetlana are made by Sovtek and I don't think they sound as good as the real Svetlana EL-34s. New Sensor bought the rights to a bunch of vintage great names like Mullard, Gold Lion, Tung Sol, but they are all just Russian made tubes. Somehow through some form of industrial treachery, they bought the rights to Svetlana's name and Svetlana can no longer sell tubes under their own name. They now go by SED and use their insignia which is known as the "winged C."

SED EL34 tubes 1.jpg
 

MadFloyd

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Thanks. I've ordered some of these to try.
 

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