Mullard or Telefunken valves

[Wakefield Turntables]

Just a quick question. Which brand do you think is best, Mullard or Telefunken?

[Marco]

That's an impossible question to answer, Andy, as it depends entirely on context.

In general, Mullards tend to sound warmer and fuller, with a beautifully textured and expansive midrange, and on occasions, limited in 'sparkly treble', compared with Teles, which in general, have a somewhat 'cooler' tone, sounding leaner, tighter, more explicit and more 'sparkly' at the top end.

However, ALL of those traits will be balanced out by the inherent sonic signature of the partnering equipment. Therefore, if that has a tight and lean sound, I'd probably use Mullards, and conversely, if it has a more of a warm and full sound, I'd use Teles. However, there are so many variables here as to render the existence of any 'universal best' as next to meaningless.

The only way of finding out what the score is in your system is to do some tube-rolling! :)

Marco.

[The Black Adder]

+1

If it's for the raddy I'd suggest NOS Mullards but I've heard TF's are nice too... a different flavor I'm sure.

If you can find some early NOS (or well matched) EL34's (just look for the olde type shield) that would be very decent. As for signal valves maybe try some Amperex? I can't remember what the set was on the raddy but I think it was ECC88 (E88CC gold pin version).

[Wakefield Turntables]

That's an impossible question to answer, Andy, as it depends entirely on context.

In general, Mullards tend to sound warmer and fuller, with a beautifully textured and expansive midrange, and on occasions, limited in 'sparkly treble', compared with Teles, which in general, have a somewhat 'cooler' tone, sounding leaner, tighter, more explicit and more 'sparkly' at the top end.

However, ALL of those traits will be balanced out by the inherent sonic signature of the partnering equipment. Therefore, if that has a tight and lean sound, I'd probably use Mullards, and conversely, if it has a more of a warm and full sound, I'd use Teles. However, there are so many variables here as to render the existence of any 'universal best' as next to meaningless.

The only way of finding out what the score is in your system is to do some tube-rolling! :)

Marco.

Thanks for the comments Marco, being new to tube rolling and just getting into it I thought I'd start a thread and see what people had to say! And its worked aa now have some comments on both valve types!


+1

If it's for the raddy I'd suggest NOS Mullards but I've heard TF's are nice too... a different flavor I'm sure.

If you can find some early NOS (or well matched) EL34's (just look for the olde type shield) that would be very decent. As for signal valves maybe try some Amperex? I can't remember what the set was on the raddy but I think it was ECC88 (E88CC gold pin version).

Joe, just scored a set of NOS ECC88's for the pre-amp (not the gold pin version). The EL34's are quite easy to find, but finding them at a decent price is another matter. I've been quoted £175 for a single valve, I've been offered several EL34 valves for less than £50 each, tested and packaged. Thanks for the help.