Will EL84 fans please respond

[Opti-cal]

Chris and Barry, good links and suggestions, thanks.

Can one trust ebay? Have read about fakes, especially Telefunken. Apparently the markings on the genuine bottles rub of quite easily whereas the fakes don't.

Depends on the seller, if they have 95+% positive feedback (read some too) and their numbers are high (over 500+ sales) then chances are they are genuine. A few sellers from the USA are very decent, UK and Europe, not so many.

I only referenced ebay for the new Gold Lion tubes for shipping to SA (which would not be fake obviously as they are not particularly expensive and all a uniform price from seller to seller). However I would buy from a main dealer whom can properly match and test them (Hot Rox in this case).

NOS tubes are always a risk through ebay. A good seller will have proper testing equipment and be able to give you gm/emissions readings and be able to test for leaks/shorts etc.

The above is just my experience but having said that I have moved on NOS tubes (genuine ones) but without the documentation (as I can't test them) and the buyers are always more than happy, so there are those out there with the good stock so to speak. They are getting fewer and further between though, hence why I would go new production in this case given all the potential issues which have been outlined here.


Oh and just to confirm, the 12AT7's I linked to are 100% genuine, I've used them many times from this seller. Cannot account for other sources however.