Originally Posted by
helma
AFAIK JJ EL34 quality is fine these days, at least a well respected Finnish vendor seems happy about selling them, which apparently isn't the case with JJ KT77 which they still don't recommend because of quality control issues, though I recall reading somewhere the KT77 have also gotten better. They also offer a "hifi graded" version of the JJ EL34, which they have ran in and tested extensively, apparently about 5-10% of product they get their hands on meets their criteria of specs. Adds 10 euros to the price per valve, so a pair would run about 50 euros, but they do throw in an extended (6 months) warranty, so might as well go with that. Haven't yet put in the order though and also noticed a NOS pair of Svetlana EL34 wouldn't cost that much more, so wondering if that would be a better value for money.
I'd take Svetlana ("winged C") over JJ all day long At the time when I was getting loads of faulty JJ valves, most valve suppliers in UK were strongly recommending them! Call me cynical... but this makes me think the suppliers were getting a good mark up on them... I do hope that QA has indeed improved since then (about 10 years ago).
Just an aside but it amazes me that Mullard are so sought after over Brimar, Mazda etc... All of the "BVA" British and European valves from the golden age were of good quality and I sometimes find Brimar to be better than Mullard!
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