Help identifying an ECC83 valve

[Lawrence001]

It's branded Mazda and made in England, but I know Mazda was just a name put on rebranded valves. I was looking inside and thought this is a very nice construction, far better than any ECC83/12AX7 I've seen before. (E.g.the little silver bits on the plates.) Of course that doesn't mean it sounds great but some effort must have been made in the production line. I've obviously checked Mullard, who else made valves in England then?


Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

[CageyH]

Brimar?

[Jazid]

Looks like a Brimar to me.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

[Lawrence001]

Thanks guys are they supposed to sound any good? I need to find a matching (physically if not electrically) one for my gate audio pre.

Sent from my BLN-L21 using Tapatalk

[da2222]

You need to check the etchings at the bottom...if they haven't rubbed. The plates themselves give away little info in this case unfortunately...

[Jimbo]

Mazda's are an nice ECC83 tube. Great clarity and dynamics. Some rate then nearly as good as Telefunkens.

[Jazid]

Think you'll find there aren't etchings on Brimar valves, sometimes printed codes eg. 4L9/1573 but rarely do they last and I've never seen a credible way to interpret them beyond valve type code. The plates are bog standard tall grey ladder plates stapled on both sides and the ring getter is equally usual, so finding physically matching ones won't be hard,. It all depends on how decent the valve you have actually is... I hear a lot of talk about how good they sound and have no useful opinion, but in my experience they often don't measure very well, and section matching can be poor.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk