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Amperex tube question

santa

santa

Well-Known Member
Hello,
I have a couple of tubes that I have a question about.
They are ECC83 Amperex and they have the little metal flags attached inside the tube with numbers stamped into them.
I know that they are likely low noise and special for some reason but have not lit them up as of yet.
What do you folks know about these unique tubes?
Number 17 and 23

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Mr Boochie said:
They are prolly Tungsram (Hungarian) made ECC83.
Click to expand...


Are you sure?

As far as I know it was Philips who bought up Amperex and brought the noval manufacturing to the USA.

I have several EL84 that came from the Polam factory (the last Philips valve factory and was located in Poland) that have these little flags.

(I never studied the ECC83 in depth as it is a tube that does not interest me at all.)
 
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Those tubes are undoubtedly re-branded tubes, originally manufactured by Tungsram in Hungary, as @Mr Boochie mentioned.

The construction and date code "flags" are the indicators. Note the dual supports for the halo getter and copper leads with reddish looking glass crimps. Compared side by side with a Philips company made, small plate ECC83, the circular viewing slots for the grid venting are larger on the Tungsram. The date code strips are also the giveaway indicator.

Nice sounding tubes...The Tungsram are a bit less sweet and a bit more analytical sounding than Mullard-Osram- Valvo varieties, IMHO...
 
Amperex was a small maker of industrial and transmitting tubes in Long Island, bought by Philips in the '50s as a way into the US market. They imported and relabeled Philips tubes from many European factories, though a few like some 6922s were made in New York. Some were Mullard made, though IEC imported most of those. And some were other brands relabeled; I've seen GE and Eastern European made tubes with Amperex labeling.
 
Dswankey said:
Curios as to why you questioned the suggestion?
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As mentioned in my post I have several Polam / Telam EL84 that have these exact metal flags with the exact type of numbering. IMHO the flag alone does not uniquely identify the maker, some other manufacturer(s) had these as well as @Mamrak1 link showed (but not looking similar).
 
AmadeusMozart said:
As mentioned in my post I have several Polam / Telam EL84 that have these exact metal flags with the exact type of numbering. IMHO the flag alone does not uniquely identify the maker, some other manufacturer(s) had these as well as @Mamrak1 link showed (but not looking similar).
Click to expand...

Those are prolly relabeled Tungsram made tubes. Have any photos?
 
Mr Boochie said:
Those are prolly relabeled Tungsram made tubes. Have any photos?
Click to expand...
I have the tubes but no pothos and cannot be bothered. FWIW I worked for Philips at one stage and the ones I have are genuine Telam / Polam. If you do not believe me then that is your problem, not mine.
 
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