Tube recommendations for an EL84 Magnavox?

Poultrygeist

Lunatic Member
Just purchased a Magnavox EL 84 SE and I'm looking for tube recommendations. It will come with a NOS 7308 brand unknown, 5AR4 rectifier and a pair of JJ EL84's. My experience with JJ's has not been great. I had a couple that went out in another amp within six months.
 
I see quad and pair of 6P14P-EV with gold pins on ebay right now, you can buy a quad for cheap, and have 2 for spares.

For 7308, 6DJ8 family, I like Mullard 6DJ8 / ECC88.

No affiliations.
 
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Either the 6p14p-EV (6n14n-EB depending on latin or cryllic spelling) or the EL-84M Sovtek. I've been using both in my EL-84 based FISHER's and they are like th old Timex commerical. "Take a licking, and keep on Ticking" my oldest set is a quad of 14P-EV's in a TA-600 that loves to eat EL-84's(7189's). They haven't skipped a beat in 5 years of 5 days a week 6 hours a day, and I put them on the tester last month (I check gm every 6 months on my tubes for life testing comparison while doing PM's on the gear) and they are still > 105% of the manual rating for gm. The Sovteks are one of my newest quads in another FISHER, and they originally tested @ 105% of the gm rating. A year and a 1/2 later of 4 days a week 6-8 hours a day and they test as they did the day I got them.

Either tube is a very good replacement for either the 6BQ5 or the higher rated 7189. As both are rated to the 7189 rating, I have no problem recommending them for either tube.
 
I was lucky enough to have the original Magnavox branded Mullards in mine. If or when they go bad I would probably go with the Sovtek EL84M's.
 
Just purchased a Magnavox EL 84 SE and I'm looking for tube recommendations. It will come with a NOS 7308 brand unknown, 5AR4 rectifier and a pair of JJ EL84's. My experience with JJ's has not been great. I had a couple that went out in another amp within six months.

Just curious what the model number is. I'm not aware of a single ended Magnavox amp that uses that tube lineup.
 
I also had the original Mullard EL84s and replaced them with the Russian 6p14p-EV. IMHO they sound just as good and will probably last a lot longer.
 
Other tube changes might be part of some modification? I thought the 8600 used one of those little rectifiers, 6CA4 or similar.
 
Just curious what the model number is. I'm not aware of a single ended Magnavox amp that uses that tube lineup.

Don't have it yet but here's a picture.

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Ahh...Dennis probably changed to a different circuit since that amp originally had a 12AX7 in the front end. JJ's EL84 are actually pretty reliable..and cheap. The Gold Lion tubes are supposed to be really good but are more expensive.
 
Sorry, I got in before you pulled the trigger. I have a scratch built DGSE-1. After finishing the amp, I bought NOS 6P14P-EV based on reviews (EV or EB does indicate longer life, 3000-5000 hr, I think EV is the same as EB. It's Cyrillic text)
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I found the 6P14P to be a little 2-dimensional after listening to the amp for a month or two. They are probably more reliable, but I'm just not that impressed. For a time, I thought it was the amp. I almost considered selling it.

I tried some EL84EH that I had from a PP amp and they were a noticeable improvement. More detailed, better sound stage (seemed taller).

Finally, just a couple of days ago, I plugged in some old RCA 6BQ5s that I figured were past their usable life. They are wonderful, immediate, seemed like I could hear everything going on in the recording studio. Spooky sound, like my brain was telling me "there is an actual musician inside that speaker cabinet". The pets we have get a little un-nerved when they are listening with me. Cats will perk up and dogs almost want to start barking at the speakers or leave the room to find the "person".

Kind of ironic, because I didn't think much of the RCA 6BQ5 clear tops that I had in my old RCA RS-177 PP amp. They are supposed to be the cat's meow too.

I will try the 6P14P once more just to compare against what I heard. Driver is an RCA 12AX7A, speakers are Pi 3's. I am very very satisfied with this amazing little $200 amp.

IMG_0246_zpsmndouz0q.jpg
 
Nice little amps! I have a couple P/P Maggies. But i have a couple SE EL84 console pulls from other manufacturers. The EL84 tube is astoundingly good, period. I have gathered up a nice collection of Matsushita, Mullards, Amperex, and other brands. They all sound very good to me.
 
Here's a review of the Russian's


Preferred Series 7189 (premium EL84) - This is the tube you want in just about every amp that calls for a 7189 or EL84. These tubes are bold, producing solid fundamental notes and shimmering harmonics. Don’t confuse these with any other EL84 on the market. These are Russian tubes built for Russia. To get the 7189 designation you build a tube that will handle both higher plate voltages and increased current. To handle those issues the glass has to be just as heavy duty.

If you are running older cathode biased amplifiers these tubes are about as good a choice as you can make for this kind of money. Many hours of testing in class A single ended amps and demanding push – pull circuits; such as the AC30, show it to be the way to go if your amp likes to eat tubes.

This tube is not fancy. It’s great sounding and well constructed for “professional” use. To qualify as a Select Series tube, thetubestore.com performs a full battery of tests and extra inspection to make sure you never receive a dud. The $$/tone ratio is excellent with this tube.

Gold Lion EL84 - All tubes in the EL84 family are tested in a cathode biased amp where they are really pushed and their harmonic content blooms. The Gold Lion's just sound great at any volume level. The plates look to have a different coating than anything else coming out of new sensor in EL84's and this, combined with a heavy gage crimped plate seems to really keep the noise down.

Clean tones are chimey and sparkling with single coil pickups and a bit darker with humbuckers. The overdrive on these tubes is smoooth. No gritty, raspy tones, the tubes have just the right amount of compression to track with the overdrive and keep it beautifully controlled while blooming nicely as the note fades out. This produces a very nice organic sustain.

I would take these over MOST NOS tubes any day of the week. If you figure in the extra cost of NOS, these are actually a better value. IF you can get Philips, Telefunken, or British Mullard then go for it. If not, try a set of the Gold Lion EL84's.
 
Those reviews seem geared to guitarists. That said, i am sure they will work very well, i have yet to hear an EL84 i thought sounded bad. I find used/nos tubes in old amps, or vintage radio swap meets and such. They (Mullard, Amperex, and others can be had very cheaply from those meets. That said, grab what you can for now, you can always find EL84s around for rolling if you so desire. I have tested the used/nos cache i have, and only found one marginal tube thus far. You can put a lot of miles on that little tube
 
So you didn't bought those with gold pins.

I got lucky and made stocks of gold pins 6P14P-ER (EP) with 10000hrs lifespan a few years ago.

For now, I am using 6P14P-EV that I used for 5 years and still test strong.
 
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