About Tubes.........


About tube rolling...

Are, for example, any EL34 tubes replaceable with any other EL34 tubes? In theory, I would expect a matched pair of circa 1963 EL34/6CA7 Mullard dual halo XF2 tubes, (at about $160 per pair)replacing stock Chinese or Russian tubes should significantly improve the sound quality of my amplifier. Is this thinking sound, or is it a simple trial and error method of finding the best tubes for rolling?

Somebody help me out here. Trying to learn, and having a hard time getting feedback in the forum.
pariah2x

Showing 1 response by elevick

It's a no brainer to replace with Mullards if you have the money. However, some inexpensive tubes can sound good. Svetlana and Shugang will be an improvement over basic sovtek or chinese tubes.

Some EL34s will handle a little more voltage than others and you may get 4 or 5 more watts out of them but they should all be interchangeable. Just be careful to watch the bias settings on your amp.