It's new amp day here (H&K Switchblade courtesy of JohnnyUrq) and because all my other amps are 5881/6l6 powered, I don't have any spare EL34s and will need a matching quad.
It's got TADs in it. I've always liked TAD valves and thought they had quite a smooth sound across bass,mid and treb with enough clarity. Conversely, I've always found EH to be a bit too mid-crunchy, JJs to be too bottom heavy and muddy and Sovteks robust but just brittle sounding.
However, that being said, I have no idea about any of their tonal characteristics when it comes to EL34s so what are my recommendations for a matched quad?? I can't stretch to Winged Cs, so I'm interested in opinions on TAD, Tungsol, JJ, EH and Groove Tubes.
Watford Valves (who I've never dealt with but have heard the horror stories) have Groove Tubes on offer currently but I'm not convinced about purchasing from them.
Comments
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
I've used Watford valves a few time recently and had no problems. Still don't like the fact that prices are ex VAT and unless you phone them you don't know what the shipping is until after they have your card details!!
No experience of TAD's, but I'd say your description of the EH, JJ's and Sovteks 6L6's (?) pretty much holds for EL34's. Winged C's are very good and the closest modern EL34 to Mullards that I've heard. JJ's are OK and quite useable in a Marshall voiced amp. I haven't tried GT EL34s. However, don't like their 6L6's find them brittle and spiky, particularly their 60's GE side getter clone which sound nothing like the original valve!
Shugz who was on the MR forum put Tungsol Reissue 5881's in his Tweed Bassman reissue when he got it and first rehearsal one went bit time and took some resistors in the amp with it. I've avoided them as a make since that.
Bloody hell I hope that was a one off, I just done a complete revalve of my Rivera with Tungsol reissues, (apart from the phase inverter which is a jan Phillips) they were reccomended on a Rivera specialist site though. I've only gigged them once so far so a bit early for me to give any opinion on them.
ESChap is right on the ball as always..... ..... the winged C's seem to be another very good option and it'd be a toss up between them and TD.
JJs are pretty good for the money, I was pleasantly surprised.....I re-valved an early 60s AC30 about 6 months ago and I thought they were exceptional. They replaced an original quad of Mullards and they were as good if not better. Mind you, the Mullards were 50 years old so.........?!!
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Of course the Svetlana winged C's will sound very lovely too and quite expensive as well. I need to try these one day to scratch that itch.
Just to point out that Groove Tubes are not a manufacturer, they just rebrand other makes then bump up the price for supposedly testing then picking the best. Perfect example is the JJ ecc83s which you can buy from Hotrox for £7.25. The same tube branded as Groove Tube is £18. Here's a link to an interesting article.
http://www.thetubestore.com/Tubes/Groove-Tubes
I'd say get the cheapest ones you can from your particular favourite country - China, Russia, or Czech Republic.
Is it worth getting them match?? Hmm... I think it probably is worth it. You don't want a tube that is ideal for 29mV draw and a tube that is ideal for 43mV draw on the same side of a quad - opposite sides will be fine, because that's what the bias adjustment is mean to compensate for, AFAIK.
IMHO, YMMV, etc...