Calling All Mullard Experts

[Mike]

Hahahahahahaha......

There's a bit of a clue in the sellers name.....

[anthonyTD]

There's a bit of a clue in the sellers name.....

[Marco]

I didn't even get that far (no need to) - I just looked at the picture of the valve!

Marco.

[The Grand Wazoo]

if you want a real good all-rounder, then i would take the CV4004/M8137 [box plate] in most applications.
their not cheap now but they have a long life [typicaly 10,000 hours] so probably the last ECC83 some of you will ever need!!!
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I'd agree with Anthony here - those were the best I found for my phono stage, Marco's Telefunken's being a bit too 'Knopfler' compared to the 'Hendrix' of the Mullards!

[Rare Bird]

Truly the king of ECC83/12AX7s - at a price!

I've not had all that much experience with tube rolling but the Telefunken tube are fantastic, miles better than the overrated ones people recommend from time to time.

[alfie2902]

I've not had all that much experience with tube rolling but the Telefunken tube are fantastic, miles better than the overrated ones people recommend from time to time.

I think it's horses for courses though Andre! I think it can depend on the amp or whatever it's used in.

I shelled out a pile of £s for a NOS Telefunken ECC801s (12at7/ECC81 varient) after being told it's the dogs b*****ks for my headphone amp. I found it to be quite shrill & not a patch on my favourite 1959 Philips Miniwatt 12at7 or even my reserve Mullard M8162/CV4024. Perhaps in another application the Telefunken ECC801s may well live up to the hype.

As I said earlier an Ecc83 Telefunken 'Smooth Plate' sounds great in my phono stage!

[Barry]

Hi Phillip

Your enquiry gives me the opportunity to remind members of the AoS Library. In this library there is much useful valve data :

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3285.

I cannot speak from experience, as I have only a few items that use valves (three tuners and one reel-reel tape deck), none of which are being used at the moment. All use Mullard brand valves and all the spare valves I have are Mullard NOS. I have not had an opportunity to do any 'tube rolling', though this is a planned activity I intend to try out on one of the tuners.

Two sites which might interest you are:

www.tube-classics.de/indexen.htm

and

www.tubeworld.com.

See how you get on with these sites.

I would add that valve connoisseurs talk about valves in much the same way a wine connoisseur will talk about wine - and all will have their favourites.

Briefly, however, it seems that the Mullard brand ECC83 was made between 1959 -1969, and came in two versions: short plate 14mm and long plate 17mm. The long plate is thought to be better. All Philips brand (including Mullard) ECC83 are of good quality.

Regards

[anthonyTD]

hi all,
barry is right to a point, there are two main diffrences in the plate structure as far as size, they are 15mm and 17mm, but there are also a multitude of other unique diffrences in physical contruction to take into acount, some of which are; copper or steel grid pins, halo or D type getters, diffrent anode/plate coatings etc,etc... MULLARD, BRIMAR, PHILIPS valves were all part of the BVA [british valve association] so for eg; a valve branded as PHILIPS or BRIMAR could infact be a re-branded MULLARD. the type of structure will tell you a lot if you know what to look for! of course date codes go a long way in defining where and when a valve was made.
hope this helps.
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