A new, new production EF86

[Jim R.]

I just came across a new production EF86 from Tung Sol. I saw mention of it in the hificollective newsletter out of the UK but have no idea of pricing, availability, and suitability for the eros, but do plan to check it out this evening.

-- Jim

[Paul Birkeland]

One would assume that it is roughly equivalent to the EH EF86.  This was the defacto tube used for several years in the Eros circuit, and its design was off enough for the specifications that a servo circuit had to be added to maintain proper bias.

Having said that, these will probably work well in a stock Eros.  I would not hold out much hope for them performing properly in a Repro or an Eros running LED bias.

-PB

[Jim R.]

While they do come from more or less the same place, I am a bit more optimistic about their specs and quality control. This based on some of the other tung-sol branded new production tubes over the Eh branded ones. The 12ax7 is one I have had particularly good experiences with -- with the TS brand being a whole different animal than the EH brand, which hurt my ears. Fortunately though, I have no more 12ax7s in my system anywhere.

There's only one way to tell... but I'll have to build the Eros first.

-- Jim

[vladimirwolfe]

Jim,

Have you tried the JJ EF806? I don't know about hi-fi but it sounds great in my Tode guitar amp. I got it from the good folks at Eurotubes https://www.eurotubes.com/cart/index.php?page=view_products&category_id=2&sub_category_id=123

Doug

[johnsonad]

Don't put the cart before the horse Jim!

[Jim R.]

You know, I'm just pointing out that there is another option now. I have a small box of NOS euro ef86s including mullard, siemens, telefunken and GEC, and a couple of 7308 PQs, so I'm sure I'm going to find what I want somewhere in that collection.

I also thought there was some issue with the ef806 in the Eros, but I don't remember what it was. Thanks for the pointer though, someday I may get to try all these options.

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

IIRC the JJ EF806s I tried were quite noisy, but that was several years ago.