Siemens EL 34

op

if you can, show pics of the telefunken el34’s you are talking about

i don’t believe telefunken actually made el34’s ... in the 80’s in eastern germany rft made slim bottle dimple top el34’s that were labelled many different brands (rft, national, siemens, also telefunken and so on)... very decent tubes but in my experience not in the same league as true uk mullard, dutch amperex, or even, the later japan-made seam topped ones on relocated mullard tooling

ram (roger mojeski’s operation, rip roger!) is/was a tube seller and rebrander, a good one at that, but as such they source different tubes from different origins, test and screen, then silkscreen their logo over that of the original manufacturers', so the fact that these have ram printed on them in ram boxes does not tell you what underlying tube you have

here are a few links with pics to show you the various tubes that have been sold as 'telefunkens' el34's in the past

ebay old stock siemens tube set -- note the thin glass bottles (relative to the bakelite bases), dimpled top, two horizontal vents in the vertical plate, 4 staples on each side -- this is the rft east german made tube i referred to in my prior post... here is another example of a pair of the same tube but labelled rft ... here are more of the same tube, this time marked telefunken

’telefunken’ el34 set on ebay -- here is another pair of tubes on ebay... by their brown color base, the same width glass bottle, very rounded dome on top with no dimple, double ring getter construction on top, single plate vent, five round staples each side, that is a tesla czech made tube from the 80’s-90’s... closer in quality to true blue brit mullards or dutch amperexes, very good tube

here is a third kind sometimes labelled telefunken, in this case, labelled siemens... this is a yugoslavian made old stock ’ei’ factory tube... note very different construction with the pointed tip at the top... ei made these and also fat bottle el34/6ca7’s back in the day before the plant was destroyed in the war, these are equivalent quality as the rft's in my use, leaner sound, less body

in addition to the above there were indeed some (not many) real deal uk/dutch made el34’s that were rebranded telefunken back in the day... the link below is an example of these... they will have mullard or amperex production codes and d- or 0 shaped double getters, brown or black bakelite bases, even width glass bottles, relatively squared off smooth domes.... here is real deal uk mullard sold as a telefunken

so op, you can check the above against what you have

@decooney

i have very fond memories of roger’s rm9-ii, which i adored... it was one of the 2 amps (along with kevin hayes’ amazing pa-90c quad chassis mono amps) where i did most of my el34 based listening back in the late 80’s, with early big proacs, spendors, quads, maggie mg iii-a’s

what a lovely amp sonically, and made to last forever, (big time back breaker though... the backside with those massive transformers in a row still make my back hurt more than 30 years later 🤣😅)

@decooney

@jjss49 would be interested in learning if you have ever come across another amp that comes close to or beats tine rm9mkii - in your opinion. I do prefer adjustable bias, and amps with top shelf transformers. I do see many of the smaller converted amps some custom builders do, kinda dinky w/baby transformers.

the short answer is no....

the longer answer ... is for el34 based amps, i have kept my vac pa90c’s all these years, they are a standard that remains unmatched, though i don’t listen to them often, they run the power tubes sooo hard...

from there i moved away from el34’s... first went with kevin hayes' ren30/30 then 70/70, after that i went all audio research for over a decade (kt88 based, then kt120’s), a big step up in power delivery, holography, if not tonality

in more recent times, i have tried the top primaluna amp (nice sounding but not very incisive) running el34’s.... then couple years back, on a lark, i tried a linear tube audio berning design zotl reference 40... it has a totally different sound than the vac or what i remember of the rm9... but it is absolutely spectacular in its extension, air and imaging, midrange nuance, but it is not as warm and rich sounding

@pdreher

i’m curious, in your comment below, are you referring to modern day production russian made gold lion kt77’s -- or -- the true-blue old stock british gec/mo-valve/genalex gold lion kt77’s?

in my experience, i still find the real deal british kt77’s to be the absolute pinnacle of all el34 equivalents, a step above even british mullard or dutch amperex el34’s.... silky smooth yet extended highs, dense yet tactile and delicate midrange with a beautiful spotlighting effect, and terrific control and slam down low (which the mullards lack to a degree) ...