New production EL84/6BQ5 tubes?


Right now there finally seems to be alot of new choices in this tube type. Has anyone out there done their own shoot out of these tubes? How do they compare to your favorite NOS types? I am curious about the new Mullards, Gold Lions, TAD (Tube Amp Doctor),etc. Or, do you feel the standard Electro Harmonix and Sovteks are good enough. How about sharing your experiences and saving us all a bunch of time and money. I'll share this: I am very impressed with the Gold Lions even though my reference is NOS Mullard or "D" getter Bugle boys. I'm thinking of getting another set of the Lions, but maybe there is something even better out there. What do you think? Amps by the way are the Fisher 30A mono's
hifiharv
I have a Bob Carver Black Magic VTA20S that Bob has setup to put out at least 20 watts per channel, and requires the "M" version for its more robust design (I actually had two of these configured for 40 watts in mono mode, and intended to trade both in when I ordered my Bob Carver Raven Beauty 200s, but when I tried one of the Black Magics I could not part with it and so I bought it back-it put a spell on me). I have not found any EL-84M tubes other than the current production Sovteks. Since we appear to be heating up the Cold War I thought I helped win years ago, I ordered eight more Sovtek "M's" before sanctions hit. Anyone know of any NOS EL-84M suppliers.
The NOS RCAs are very nice and much better than the stock Jolida tubes. I just replace the RCAs with Mullard reissues and that is also a quality tube, nicely made and good sound, just a tad more neutral than the NOS RCAs.
Yes. I had compared them to NOS tubes and found them, surprisingly, to sound very good. And I had a very negative preconception of the brand prior to trying them out due to their horrible reputation with 6DJ8/6922 tubes.

The pair I had tried was lent to me by a friend. According to him, these were from the 1980s. I am not sure if recent vintage EL84Ms are from the same manufacturing plant as some have suggested that they are not.

FrankC
Was looking into 6BQ5 tubes and found this old thread. One of my favorite tube vendors really likes the SOVTEK EL84M. Says they are "Balanced and Clean" sounding that are very smooth sounding and tons of headroom. Anybody else find this true?
How do those GLs compare with Telefunken, Siemens, GE, RCA? One advantage I would imagine is that it should be much easier to get a tightly matched quad.
I have heard only good things about the New Sensor GL EL84s. I have been using the GL reissue KT-88s for almost 2 years. They are fabulous.
I would be a little more cautious about an EL-84 reccomedation because your reference is a tube I have used that is unparalelled in every parameter you care about. In simple wording the originasl Mullards have spanked every other EL-84 I have including other NOS Tubes.
Let us know how they compare.
I've put about 15 hours on a matched quad of NOS RCAs from the early '60s in my Jolida 102b driving Totem Model One Signatures; absolutely wonderful and no comparison to the stock EH EL84s. In conjunction with NOS RCA 12AT7 input tubes and an upgraded 12AX7 preamp tube I no longer need a subwoofer in my bedroom system.